Who Are You?
by ducksandbowties
Summary: Arya's just an ordinary girl with a slightly out of the ordinary life, but she's more than able to take care of herself. She finally decides to go to the festive gathering to meet her favourite YouTubers, but she gets a bit more than she bargained for when she meets Dan. Will she end up tearing a friendship apart? It's both the best and the worst time of her life.
1. Chapter 1

Phil nudged Dan. "Look at that girl over there, I wonder why she's not joining in with everyone else?" Dan looked over and saw a girl with long, bright red hair, sitting by herself on a rock, a couple of hundred metres away. Dan thought that it was a bit unusual, as it was the festive gathering, so everyone else was either chatting amongst themselves or queuing up to see them. From what he could see, he thought he'd seen the girl earlier, running across the park, being chased by 2 beefy guys with dogs. He wondered how she could've gotten herself out of that situation... or into it for that matter.

It was early in the day, and since not many people had arrived yet, he decided to leave Phil to contend with their 'fans' (he hated calling them that) and walked off to talk to the girl. He didn't usually go over and talk to random girls, but his interest got the better of him. Some of the people queued up to see him looked over at him, hurt, as he left and almost ran after him, but were soon preoccupied with trying to talk to Phil and some of the other YouTubers that were now arriving.

The girl was facing away from Dan, and everyone else, as he approached, and she seemed to be in a world of her own, so he slowed down a bit and took the time to think of something to say to her (just so he didn't sound creepy).

Arya had been walking down the street that morning to go to the festive gathering at Hyde Park. She was almost bursting with excitement because this was going to be the first gathering that she'd gone to, but she had no idea why she was going. She wasn't really a person that interacted with others. She was nice enough. She'd talk to people if they spoke to her and she was friendly with the people she worked with, but she was terrified of what other people thought of her, so she generally distanced herself from others.

She noticed a group of about five big guys up ahead of her, so she decided to cross the street so she wouldn't have to walk near them. What she didn't notice however, was that the guys had 2 big Wolfdogs (a mix between a wolf and a dog) with them. Arya was terrified of dogs and would've turned around and hightailed it out of there if she'd seen them. As she walked past, a couple of the guys started whistling and shouting at her.

"Hey shorty, how about you come over here and talk to us!" One of them shouted with a heavy London accent.

"Yeah, come on babe!" Shouted one of the others, and the rest shouted words of agreement.

""Pft! Yeah right. What sane girl in her right mind would talk to you?!" She shouted back. She wondered why she was being so sassy all of a sudden, usually she would've kept her head down an carried on walking. It might've been because she was ill, or maybe it was all the medication she was taking for it.

"Oi! You can't talk to me like that, bitch!" The group of guys massed together in a big, angry bunch and started walking towards her threateningly. They walked right in front of her and the leader(or at least the one who seemed like the leader anyways) growled "I could beat you up for talking to me like that!"

They were so close to each other by now that Arya could smell the alcohol on his breath. She was slightly terrified, but she didn't let it show. She laughed instead. "Yeah, you sure about that? Well you'll have to catch me first!" Arya stamped on the big guy's foot and ran off around the corner in the direction of the tube station. By the sound of it, they were chasing after her. She was slightly concerned with the idea that they might actually catch up with her, but despite being an extremely introverted girl, she loved excitement and adventure, which she mainly got from books, but occasionally real life threw her an opportunity to experience it herself, and recently there hadn't been much happening in her life that she could call 'exciting'. Anyway, there wasn't much chance of them catching up with her, she was a cross country runner, and not a shabby one at that.

While she was running down the pavement, she heard a bark, and it sounded like it was coming from behind her. _Please don't let there be a dog chasing me too, please, please, please..._ She looked behind her, hoping that there weren't any dogs, but her fears were confirmed. There were 2 great big snarling dogs, and unlike the guys, they weren't slowing down from exhaustion, in fact, they were catching up. Arya picked up her pace. There was no way she'd be able to get to the gathering by tube now, they'd catch her too easily, she was going to have to run all the way. _Joy..._ On the bright side, she'd lost 2 of the guys already and it looked like one of the others was slowing down as well. Arya changed her direction to Hyde Park. She'd gotten to know London pretty well over the past 2 years and knew all the short cuts.

Arya arrived at Hyde Park with 2 of the guys and the dogs still chasing her. She had to admire their stamina (and their determination, she would've given up ages ago), it had been about 4 miles since they'd started chasing her and they'd been running a constant sprint. Arya herself was starting to get tired, she wasn't used to running quite this far, but she couldn't just lead them the Hyde Park, there were other people there and the youths would just start causing trouble. _Look at me,_ she thought, _I'm calling them 'youths' and I'm still a teenager._ She mentally laughed at that. Arya was running on the edge of the park, and from what she could see, not very many people had turned up yet. She thought she was Dan and Phil, and her heart leapt, she'd had an internet crush on them for years. She never thought the day would come that she'd actually have the opportunity to meet them. There were a couple of other YouTubers that she didn't recognise, but she knew they must be pretty cool since there were already a few people crowded around them.

Arya thought she saw a couple of people looking at her, she would've loved to slow down and have a proper look, but when she looked behind herself, she noticed that she was being caught up again, so she picked up the pace. She could feel her lungs burning, she wouldn't be able to carry on for much longer. Thankfully the streets were now quite busy as the rest of London woke up. She saw a big crowd gathered at the entrance to the tube station and started running towards it. She knew she would definitely lose the guys there, but she wasn't so sure about the dogs, and that's what she was most worried about. Luckily, when the dogs realised she was running into a massive crowd, they stopped and started whimpering. No such luck for the youths though. They continued following her through the crowd, so she decided to lead them down an alleyway. She reached into the front pocket of her bag and grabbed her pepper spray. She ran about half way down the alley, stopped and turned around to face the guys who were now blocking the exit. She kept the pepper spray hidden as they approached, panting heavily.

"We've got you now, you stupid bitch." One of them said, chuckling darkly. "Nobody insults us and gets away with it."

Arya let them carry on walking towards her until they were about 2 feet away from her when she pepper sprayed one of them and kicked the other in the nuts. She ran past their curled over, wailing bodies and left them kneeling over in pain as joined the oblivious pedestrians walking down the sidewalk. That was easier than she'd expected it to be, but then again, it could've gone so very wrong. Arya jogged over to the edge of the park and stood there for a minute, watching everyone interacting. _I can't do this._ She thought. _What am I even doing here?_ The thought of actually interacting with other people that she didn't know suddenly became very daunting. Although she was a 'YouTuber' herself, she had no idea what to so, or what to say to other people. _I've come this far today, it'd be stupid to just go straight back home now. After all, I did arrange the day off work just for this. _Eventually she decided to sit down at the base of a tree, a little way away from everyone else and faced away from them, put one of her earphones in (she didn't put both in because she didn't want to seem rude if someone started talking to her) and started drawing.

A/N: Hey. I'm usually alright at writing these little notes, but this time I'm not, it's just another fanfic. My third one on the go actually... I should probably slow down a bit and focus more on the work that I should be doing. Anyhows, feedback is welcome as always and maybe vote if you like it ^_^


	2. Chapter 2

Dan walked up to the girl and leaned against the trunk of the tree that she was sat under. Good, she hadn't noticed him coming. He didn't want to seem creepy or anything, she just looked so engrossed in what she was doing and he didn't want to make her feel like she had to get up or anything. He glanced over her shoulder to see what she was doing. It was a drawing of a bunch of YouTubers, himself and Phil included. Well, she knew who he was. "Hey there." Dan said. The girl recoiled and quickly reshuffled her papers so that a sketch of the park was on the top. Dan didn't understand why she would be embarrassed of the other drawing, it was amazing.

Arya nearly had a heart attack when she heard someone say "Hey there" from behind her. She thought he recognised the voice, but she was too nervous to turn around and see who was talking to her. "Umm... Hi?" She replied, keeping her face directed towards the paper in front of her. She saw the guy crouch down just in the corner of her eye. _What's wrong with me? _She thought._ I can sass up to muscular, hormonal... youths, but I can't must up the courage to even look at one guy who's come over here to talk to me._

"What's your name?" He asked in a smooth calm voice, the complete opposite of how Arya was feeling at the moment.

"Arya." She replied quietly. She didn't think to ask what his name was, even though it made her seem rude, but she had distanced herself from people so much, she honestly didn't know what to say or do when meeting new people.

"Arya, that's a nice name. Nice to meet you, I'm Daniel." Dan didn't want to say the name that everyone knew him by, just in case she fangirled. "Anyway, what are you doing here on your own? There's loads of people you could be talking to right now."

"Yeah I know, that's the problem." Arya said, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"What do you mean?" Dan asked, puzzled. "Care to elaborate?"

"There's loads of people... I don't do too well around people, especially not big crowds. And anyway, on top of that, I'm sick, and I don't want everyone to hate me for making them sick as well." Arya surprised herself by being able to actually talk to this stranger without doing something stupid, or making herself look like a complete weirdo.

"Hey, didn't I see you running from a couple of guys with dogs earlier? What was all that about?" Dan questioned hoping he wasn't treading on 'forbidden territory'. He tried to lighten the question my making it more 'jokey'. "What did you do, sass them?"

"Yeah actually... and stamp of the guy's foot." Arya laughed. That surprised Dan. He knew he'd only met her a few minutes ago, but Arya didn't seem to be the sassy type of person, much less a violent one. "I would've been able to lose the guys in the tube, but... let's just say, that dogs and I don't get on."

Dan nodded, but then felt foolish because she couldn't see him. "Anyway, I know it might seem s bit daunting at first, but you should come over." He started. Arya decided to look up at the exceptionally kind person who was talking to her and froze. It was Dan Howell, her number 1 internet crush. Dan meanwhile, oblivious to Arya's awestruck stare, carried on talking. "Everyone's really friendly, and I'm sure they wouldn't care about you being ill... What?" He asked as he noticed Arya staring up at him.

Arya struggled to find her words. "You... you... um... hi." She stuttered, quickly raising her hand in a sort of half-wave. With the sudden movement however, she lost her balance and fell over into the mud and a gust of wind blew all of the pieces of paper she'd been holding everywhere. _Shit._ She thought. _Now I've really gone and made an idiot out of myself, and only in front of freaking Dan Howell!_ Arya blushed and began gathering up all the drawings that were now either fluttering in the wind or had come to rest in the mud. It was tragically beautiful really.

Dan smiled at Arya as she scrambled to pick up the papers and strode off to grab the ones that were still floating in the wind. He picked up a few of the papers that had blown further away, carefully brushing the dirt off the crumpled sheets and headed back to help with the rest. He was dismayed to see such brilliant artwork ruined by mud. He turned back to see Arya still crouched in the mud, hurriedly reaching out for the drawings as they escaped her grasp. Dan got to work helping Arya and soon there was only one sheet left. Dan's hand landed on top of Arya's as they both reached to grab it (so cliché). Arya looked up at Dan and quickly took the sheet from him, her cheeks going bright red, almost matching her hair. Dan thought Arya's eyed were absolutely captivating. They were like a tropical ocean, bright blue and glistening with flecks of gold and green.

"Umm... here you are." Dan handed Arya the sheets of paper and she quietly took them, not daring to look at him, she felt so embarrassed. "You've got a little something on your..." Dan reached out to wipe a smudge of mud off her face. Arya flinched as he raised his hand, nearly dropping all of her drawings again. After a second she realised he was only reaching to wipe something off her face and relaxed. Mentally she was fangirling. _Dan Howell is freaking touching my face! Oh. My. Glob!_ "You know, you have some really good drawings there, even though they're covered in mud and that..." Dan said, pointing towards the pile of papers Arya was carrying in her arms.

Arya quickly stuffed them into her bag and bowed her head shyly. "Yeah..." She wasn't very good at accepting compliments.

"Hey, why don't you come over with me, I'm sure everyone will love you." Dan offered, holding out his hand. Arya gingerly took it and Dan started walking back, pulling Arya behind him.

A/N: It's another chapter! Is it moving too slowly? should I speed it up a bit or do you like the detail? (don't worry, just because there's a lot of detail, doesn't mean it'll be boring). Let me know what you think of it, even if you hate it. Oh, and let me know if I accidentally call Arya 'Violet', because that's what I originally called her.

Thanks for reading! ^_^ 3


	3. Chapter 3

Arya kept her head down as Dan pulled her towards the ever increasing crowd of people. Dan was aware of a few people taking pictures of them. No doubt they'd be all over the internet late on, especially tumblr, with speculations and comments like 'Dan has a new girlfriend!' He stopped abruptly, turned around to face Arya and lifted her chin up with his free hand, so she had to look him in the eyes. "Just go and have some fun okay? Don't worry what people think of you, chances are, you'll never see them again." He reassured her. He felt very protective of her for some reason, like she was a mystery waiting to unravelled, and **he** had to be the person to unravel her. Arya nodded, but didn't move from where she was. "And, um... how about you stick around afterwards and you can come some place with me and the guys." Dan asked softly. He was really fascinated by Arya, and he wanted to get to know her better, but he thought asking her to go somewhere with him alone might be weird.

Arya didn't know what to say to that. She was only expecting to spend a few minutes with each of her favourite YouTubers, not go somewhere with them afterwards! She nodded dumbly as she tried to find her words. "Yeah... great... I'd love to!" She managed to say at last.

Dan grinned. "I'll see you later then!" He said as he walked off to greet people who had started gathering at a slight distance.

Arya stood there for a minute watching Dan interact with his fans until one guy walked up to her. "Hey, isn't your name Arya?" He asked her. Arya nodded. "And you make videos on YouTube right?" Again, she nodded. The guy turned around and called "Hey guys! I've found her!" A group of about 10-15 people came running up to her. She was somewhat overwhelmed, being the first gathering she'd ever been to, and she came to meet YouTube, not to be bombarded with a group of fans! "You have no idea how long we've been waiting to meet you! Not to sound creepy or anything." He said as his friends were running over. "My name's Tom, by the way."

Arya smiled. "Nice to meet you-" she started, but was interrupted when one of the group yelled.

"We LOVE your videos!" Soon enough they were asking her questions and wanting her to sign their books and iPads. Arya had no idea what to do. She only ever spent time with people at work and with the people she shared her apartment with, and she rarely had a proper conversation with any of them.

"Hey, hey, HEY! Guys, why don't you calm down a bit? Can't you see she's a bit overwhelmed right now?" Tom interjected, winking at Arya while he did so.

Arya blushed and averted her gaze. She caught Dan looking at her with a confused expression, so she sent him a small wave. He smiled and turned back to his demanding fans. Arya spent the majority of the following hour signing things, chatting with the group of people surrounding her and having awkward pictured taken as more and more people came to see who she was. Arya hated having her picture taken.

Dan couldn't get Arya out of his head. The first time he glanced back, she was still looking at him with those magical eyes of hers. In a way, he was worried that she'd just stand there and not talk to anyone, but he had to turn back to the constantly expanding group of 'fans' that were demanding his attention. A few people, who had seen him walking back with Arya asked him if they were dating. Every time, he replied the same: "No, I only just met her. She was on her own, so I was being nice to her."

About 5 minutes later, a small girl with a sweet, innocent pixie face stepped in front of him. She resembled someone he used to know. "Hey, I saw you walking back with that girl, you know, the one surrounded by all those people-" she pointed behind Dan. He turned to look where the girl was pointing and saw Arya surrounded by a group of at least 15 people, looking completely out of her depth... He was very confused. Arya noticed him and threw him a small wave with a shy smile. She looked so adorable. He just managed to catch the end of the girl's sentence "-so are you two dating or something?" She asked.

Before he could stop himself, he said "maybe something" with a small smile. It could've been his eyes deceiving him, but the little pixie girl looked infuriated for literally a millisecond, before she covered it up with the sweet innocent look she had before. He signed her iPad and took a picture with her before the next person butted in and Dan could see that the girl was enraged at being shoved out of the way. _Somebody's got anger issues._

Arya had been standing and talking to people, or her 'amigos' as she called them in her videos (she used to be obsessed with Dora the Explorer), for at least an hour before she excused herself. She was here to talk to other YouTubers after all, and the daylight was fading fast, so she wouldn't have much time. She hadn't expected so many of her subscribers to live in London and come to a gathering to see her. _How did they even know I was going to be here? I only posted it on twitter yesterday and I only have like 30 followers, and most of them are the people I work with._

"I'll see you at the next gathering then, whenever that is, okay? Or we might even bump into each other before then!" She called to some of the 30 or so people as she walked away. Arya was a lot more relaxed than she had been earlier on and happily turned around, and nearly bumped into a small, pixie-like girl who had planted herself right in Arya's path. "Oh, sorry, I didn't see you there." Arya said with a kind smile, and tried to walk around the girl, but she purposely moved back into Arya's path. "I'm sorry, is there something you want?" Arya asked, still with a smile on her face. She was having a good day, and it was going to take a lot more than a small girl intent on blocking her path to bring her down.

The girl scowled, contorting her delicate little face into a grotesque grimace. "Yeah actually." Her voice was so squeaky and high pitched, it made Arya wince. "Keep away from Dan, alright? He's mine, I'M the future Mrs Howell, got that? Me, Chrissy, not you, ME." Arya tried hard not to laugh. Some of Dan's fans really were crazy. Anyway, she'd never have a chance with Dan, she couldn't have been any older than 15. As if reading her mind, the girl burst into a fit of rage. "I'm not a stupid little teenager you know! I'm 20!" _Whoa... I was not expecting that..._ Arya though, but before she could say anything, the girl, sorry, woman, grabbed Arya's arm and bit her bare hand, before stalking off.

Initially, Arya just stood there in a state of shock with her mouth hanging open, but then the pain set in. She looked down at her hand to see blood dripping off her little finger. That Chrissy girl had bitten right through the flesh of her hand and left a bloody tooth-shaped wound. Arya reached into her bag with her other hand and rummaged around for her first aid kit. After about 10 second of sifting through her drawings, she found it (but not before a few drops of blood from her hand had managed to fall onto some of the drawings). The kit was filled with bandages, antiseptics and numbing creams, and Arya was used to bandaging up wounds, so she made short work of making it seem like she hadn't been bitten at all.

Most of the people were in random groups now, as many of them had got over the excitement and had seen all of the YouTubers they wanted to and were now talking between themselves. Arya made a quick idea of who she wanted to go to first. She eventually decided to head over to Carrie, then Benjamin Cook (who'd recently started a web series called 'Becoming YouTube'), then Dean Dobbs and after that, anyone who she fancied talking to. She wasn't particularly bothered about talking to PJ, Chris or Phil because she assumed that's who Dan meant by 'the guys'. Hopefully she wouldn't run into that crazy pixie girl again... or any other Mrs Howell wannabe's for that matter.

**A/N: Thanks for reading this so far ^_^ I hope you've been enjoying it. Let me know what you think.**

**Quick question, since Dan and Arya are obviously going to be in a relationship at some point, would you prefer that:**

**1. they're obviously attracted to each other**

**2. they're attracted to each other, but they're too afraid to put it out there or they don't think the other person likes them**

**3. there's some competition**


	4. Chapter 4

Arya headed over to where she saw Carrie. There was still quite a few people standing around her, and all the other YouTubers, so Arya decided to stand back a bit and wait. After about 10 minutes, somebody shouted "Look! It's Bertie!" so pretty much all the girls ran screaming in the direction of the voice. Arya slowly made her was towards Carrie, who looked exhausted. She didn't get all over-excited and start fangirling because she figured Carrie had already had enough of that.

"Hey." Arya said quietly. She was surprised by how short Carrie really was, but then again, being nearly 5'10", most girls were short compared to her (even though she did slouch quite a bit).

Carrie, who'd been looking in the direction of the crazed masses, turn to face in Arya's direction, and then noticing her height, looked up. "Hi there." She said with a tired smile. "What's your name?"

"Arya." She replied. "Sorry, you look exhausted and I'm robbing you of your chance to have a break. I'll... I'll go now." Arya said, turning around.

"No!" Carrie called out, stopping Arya in her tracks. "Don't go, it'll be nice to have a proper conversation today. You said your name was Arya?" Arya nodded. "That's an unusual name... Nice to meet you." Carrie smiled. "Hey, didn't you have a bunch of people talking to you earlier?"

"Yeah, that was me... not what I was expecting to do today." Arya bowed her meekly.

"Cool, so you make videos?" Carrie asked. They spoke to each other for about half an hour, about YouTube, books, and just generally random things, like hair. By the time the crowd started coming back from meeting Bertie, Arya felt that she and Carrie had gotten to know each other quite well. Just as Arya was about to leave, Carrie stopped her. "A bunch of us - you know, like Jack, Dean, Dan, Phil, and that - are going to get something to eat later, do you fancy coming?"

Arya smiled. "I think I'm already going..." Carrie looked intrigued. "Dan asked me if I wanted to go somewhere with 'him and the guys' later, so I guess that means-" Arya trailed off as that crazy Chrissy girl waltzed up behind Carrie and scowled at Arya.

The girl coughed loudly to get Carrie's attention, and when that didn't work, she walked right in between Carrie and Arya, stepping on Arya's foot in the process. "Excuuuuuse me!" She announced loudly, making it sound like Arya was in her way. Arya didn't argue, she wasn't that sort of person, so she and Carrie waved to each other as she backed off. Arya could feel the girl glowering at her as she walked away.

Arya spent the next couple of hours milling around, talking to loads of different people, something she wasn't at all used to, but was really starting to enjoy. She was surprised by how many people made videos on YouTube and ended up writing down loads of channel names, and giving out hers to many more. She also got to talk to some other, more 'famous' YouTubers, including Bertie (after the masses of squealing teenage girls had subsided slightly). At around 3pm the Secret Santa started. Arya had brought a cute little snow globe necklace that she'd made with a miniature Christmas tree in it, with her twitter username written on a small piece of paper with it so she could find out who got her present. People started leaving as the sun set and the air turned frigid.

Not much later, there was only a group of about eight creators left standing in the square. Dan looked around for Arya, be he couldn't see her. Arya had gone for a walk to get away from the crowds earlier on, but nobody had seen her for quite some time. Suddenly, a scream was heard. Everyone tensed and looked in the direction it had come from, where there were lots of trees. Dan was alarmed. _What if that was Arya? What if she's in trouble?_ He relaxed slightly when he heard a dog bark and started walking in the general direction that the scream came from. He remembered Arya's exact words from when they had spoken earlier. _"Let's just say that dogs and I don't get on." God... was it only this morning? _

They were all anxious to find out who screamed and were speculating what could've caused it. None of them thought that Dan knew the answer.

Soon enough, Dan saw a flash of bright red hair high up amongst the bare, snow covered branches. He was amazed that she'd managed to climb so high, but then he remembered seeing her run that morning. _She must be really fit... unlike me..._ What didn't surprise Dan though, was the Boxer at the base of the tree, jumping up and down and barking like crazy. Arya was clinging onto the tree as if her life depended on it. She looked like a cat who was trying to escape the big scary dog (except without the hissing and the claws).

Carrie suddenly appeared next to Dan. "Arya, is that you?" She asked, disbelievingly.

"Well I'm not behind you, am I?" Arya called back down, Oh there was the sass again. Everyone she'd spoken to today had got a fair amount of sass aimed their way.

Dan sighed. This girl really was a mystery. "Arya, why don't you come down?" He called up to her.

"I told you already, I don't like dogs!" She shouted back restlessly, coaxing an intrigued look out of the others. "Just get rid of it already." She muttered to herself.

At that moment, the dog's owner came trotting up, leash in hand and apologised. She had the most puzzled expression on her face as she looked between Arya and the group at the base of the tree. She attached the leash to the dog's collar and walked off, occasionally glancing back and walking just a little bit faster each time she did. To be fair, everyone was staring at her in silence as she walked away, which might have been just a tad creepy.

"Will you come down now? Or are we going to have to have to call a fireman to fetch you down like a lost kitten?" Dan called once the lady was out of earshot. He instantly regretted saying that.

Arya laughed, considering the option. She looked around, checking for any other dogs, before climbing down part of the way, until she ran out of branches. "You'd best stand back... I'm going to jump."

**A/N: Sorry for the crappy chapter, I'll try and make the next one a bit better. I'm so sorry if you went to the YouTube festive gathering and it wasn't like this, but I couldn't go, so I'm making it up as I go along (I live in Spain, dammit, it's not my fault! *internally raging at my parents for making me move over here*)**

**Let me know what you think ^_^ any thoughts are welcome!**

**Another quick question - What do you think about Arya and Carrie being friends? Good idea or too unreal?**


	5. Chapter 5

_"You'd best stand back... I'm going to jump."_

Arya was still over 3 metres up the tree, it was going to be a hard fall. Dan was apprehensive, as was everyone else. _I really don't want her to jump. What if she injures herself? Should I stop her?_ He thought, but obliged and stepped back anyway.

"Are you sure you can jump that far?" Someone called, no one really noticed who it was, they were too transfixed on Arya, but they were all thinking the same thing.

Arya looked amused. Gone was the shy, delicate girl Dan had met this morning. "Well Dan, you said I was like a lost kitten, didn't you?" She said smugly as she dangled her feet off the branch. "I think you're forgetting something about cats. They **always **-" Everyone flinched as she jumped "- land on their feet." She finished from her position crouched on the ground.

Arya stood up just a little too quickly and felt faint. She could feel her legs giving way underneath her and she knew she was falling, but before she hit the ground somebody caught her. She looked up to find Dan looking down at her with his intense brown eyes staring into hers. Arya could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks. "Thanks." She murmured, hauling herself out of Dan's arms to escape his gaze. She faced away from him, looking into the distance until she could feel her face cool down.

"Anyhows, we should get going." She said abruptly, keeping her eyes fixed on a spot in the distance for a couple of seconds as she started walking in the opposite direction.

"Is there something wrong?" Dan asked trying to keep up with Arya's brisk pace.

"No, nothing. Nothing at all." She lied, keeping her eyes fixed in front of her. In fact, there was a lot wrong. Her encounter with Chrissy had left her shaken (not that she'd ever let it show), and when she stood up after Dan had caught her, she could've sworn that she was Chrissy standing in the distance, staring at them. She could almost feel Chrissy's eyes boring into her back as she walked away. "So where are we going?"

"Just this little pizza place about 10 minutes walk from here, then we're heading home." Dan paused, deliberating what he was going to say next. Arya glanced over at him. He looked like he was having a mental argument with himself. Eventually he started speaking again, but this time cautiously, like he was worried what the outcome would be. "Umm... you know, if you want, you could -" he started, but was interrupted when Chris called him over. Dan gave and exasperated sigh. "I'll be back in a minute." He grumbled as he picked up his pace to catch up with Chris.

Arya walked alone for a little while and watched Dan and Chris talking to each other. Dan slumped his shoulders at something that Chris said, but it seemed that only Arya noticed. She wondered what they could be talking about. She was still lost in her own thoughts when Carrie appeared by her side. Arya absent-minded acknowledged her presence with a small greeting.

"So what's going on with you and Dan?" Carrie asked.

"Hm? Oh, nothing." Arya responded, tearing her attention away from the silent conversation she'd been watching. "He came over to me this morning and we chatted, he was just being nice." She recounted, she'd said that exact phrase so many times already. They chatted for a little while longer about trivial things, but Arya couldn't properly focus on the conversation. She still wondered what on Earth they were talking about. Carrie soon caught on that Arya wasn't really in the talking mood and walked off to talk with someone else, leaving Arya to walk alone.

Arya watched Chris give Dan a friendly punch on the arm and she expected Dan to come walking back to her, like he said he would, but instead it was Chris who turned around. He casually sidled up to her. "It's Arya, right?" She nodded. "Sooo... How's it going?" He asked smoothly, but still with a slight awkwardness that Arya thought was quite cute.

"It's alright." She shrugged. She hadn't had much of a chance to take in everything that had happened to her today, she'd been so busy.

"Only alright? Well then, I'll make it my personal goal to make today the best day you've ever had." He winked as he slung his arm around Arya's shoulders, making her blush. Arya had no idea how to reply, so she just let Chris carry on walking with her with his arm around her shoulders. It was strangely comfortable. A thought in the back of her head reminded her that tomorrow she would be back to her normal life, and all this would just be a memory, but she shoved it away, wanting to enjoy the moment.

Arya watched Dan quietly talking to Phil in front of her. Phil looked as if he were consoling Dan, or calming him down or something. _I wonder what's wrong with him. I might ask him later..._

When they arrived at the restaurant, they all bundled themselves in as fast as they could, eager to get out of the cold. The restaurant was quite small, but not cramped, just cosy. The walls were wallpapered a warm mahogany colour and the rustic tables were gently candlelit. The aroma of Italian cuisine filled the air and it made Arya's stomach rumbled. She realised she hadn't eaten anything all day, not even breakfast, and she was starving.

The group sat themselves in the corner of the restaurant, and even though they weren't a particularly large group, they still took up nearly half of the chairs. Somehow, Arya had ended up sandwiched between Dan and Chris.

Chris brought his mouth close to Arya's ear. "You know, peej and I are going over to Dan and Phil's apartment this evening to do some filming. If you want to, you can come over, just to hang out and that." He murmured softly, only just loud enough for Arya to hear. She wasn't usually very good at refusing things she didn't strongly object to, so she agreed. "Great." Chris grinned. "I'll just have to check with Dan and Phil that it's okay."

Chris leaned over Arya to speak to Dan and Phil (who was sitting next to Dan). Phil was fine with it, but when Chris brought the topic up she could feel Dan's skin boiling next to her. Eventually he agreed sulkily with a short, angry "fine" as a response. _What on Earth has gotten into him? _Arya thought. _He's never that short tempered with anyone in his videos so what's he got against me?_

**A/N: Hey! Sorry it's been a little while, I hit a writer's block and then I got a load of coursework and stuff piled up on me (which I still have to do). It might take me a little longer to upload the next couple of chapter 'cus I've got exams and that, so please bear with me :3**

**Feedback is welcome :) what do you think of the characters' thoughts in italics? do you like them?**

**Thanks you for reading this far ^_^ love you all mucho 3**


	6. Chapter 6

The meal carried on without a problem. Dan carried on sulking, so Arya tried to ignore him and enjoy herself. _I should be so excited right now, I'm going to spend the evening in the same apartment as the Fantastic Foursome! I should be super fangirling! So why aren't I?_ She thought. Something was bugging her. She couldn't really determine whether it was Dan being really rude to her all of a sudden or if she was still worked up about her encounter with Chrissy earlier. Then she remembered her hand. _I'd best keep it out of view, I don't want anyone worrying about me._

Arya mostly kept to herself throughout the meal. She wasn't used to opening up, so she kept her answers relatively short, but not too short as to seem rude. She was hoping to try and become friends with some of them at least.

Chris carried on flirting with Arya, much to Dan's disgust. He tried to turn away from them, but he could still hear them chatting, and on occasion he could hear Arya giggle. It was so melodic and beautiful and - _No, stop it Dan, you're not supposed to like her. Just stop thinking about her. She likes Chris, not you._

Phil leaned in to talk to Dan. "Dan, calm down and relax a bit. You know Chris, he's just flirting with her. He doesn't mean anything by it, and you know he'd never purposely hurt you. I bet that if you let him know that you like Arya, he'll back off." Dan sighed. Phil was right. But he couldn't. Chris liked Arya and it was pretty evident that Arya liked him back. Phil's voice brought him out of his thoughts. "Well, if you're not going to say anything, at least be nicer to Arya." Phil said sternly. "You've been acting really horrible to her this afternoon and she doesn't deserve any of it."

_What's got Phil so protective of Arya?_ Dan thought, but he agreed. He didn't want to have to argue with Phil, he could be really menacing when he was angry. _Phil's right, as usual. I have been really rude to her the past few hours. It's not her_ _fault_.

The food had just arrived, except for Chris' pizza, so now it was his turn to sulk. Dan decided to try and make small talk with Arya. _I know it won't change the fact that I've been a real jerk today, but I've got to try and make up for it._

"So, umm... how are you?" He asked, hoping she'd respond and not be mad at him for ignoring her.

It took a few seconds for Arya "Oh, are you talking to me?" She wasn't harsh or sarcastic, just a bit shocked. _Understandable I guess. _"I'm fine, and yourself?"

"Yeah, I'm alright." Dan watched Arya attempting to twirl pasta with just one hand. "You know, that would go a lot better if you used your other hand as well." He said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, I know..." Arya replied as she reluctantly lifted her left hand from under the table.

"Arya! What in God's name did you do to your hand?" Dan blurted, seizing her hand and inspecting it, like the bandages were going to give him the answers.

"I didn't do anything! It was one of your crazy Mrs Howell wannabes." Arya mumbled the last part, hoping that Dan hadn't quite caught it, but he had. Dan went crazy and was attracting the attention from the rest of the table. "Calm down and be quiet!" She muttered frantically in an attempt to shush him.

Dan took a deep breath lowered his voice. "Tell me what happened." He said with a concerned look in his eye, still holding on to Arya's hand. _Well he's certainly changed his tune from the past couple of hours._ Arya thought, still wondering what was wrong with him, and why he was acting so erratically.

Arya looked around at the rest of the table before she said anything. They realised they had all gone silent and were staring at her, so they quickly turned to whoever was sitting next to them and started chatting.

"Okay then," she started, keeping her voice low. "She bit my hand."

"Who did?" Dan whispered, obviously distressed.

"Who do you think?" Arya whispered back irritably. "The Mrs Howell wannabe. Crazy little pixie girl with a squeaky high pitched voice. Goes by the name of Chrissy. I mean, I knew your fans were insane Dan, but I never thought they were that mental."

Carrie, who'd been listening in on the conversation, butted in. "Hold on a second, was she the girl that butted in between us when we were talking?" Arya nodded. "But she couldn't have been any older than 15?!"

"She's 20..." Arya divulged. Carrie mouthed 'No' in astonishment.

"Who cares how old she is? She bit you! You need to go to the hospital and have it looked at!" Dan stressed.

"No!" Arya blurted, snatching her hand out of Dan's grasp. "I don't need to go to the hospital." She said a bit more calmly. "I am qualified in first aid, it's been disinfected and everything. My hand is fine."

"I still think you should get it checked out..." Dan muttered, quietly focusing on his plate.

The tension was diffused when Chris' pizza arrived. "Ugh, anchovy pizza?!" Arya squirmed. "Anyone want to swap places with me?" She joked.

"Oi you!" Chris said, playfully poking Arya in the ribs.

"Alright, alright! Just don't go breathing on me any time soon." She laughed.

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry it's been a while since I last updated, I've been really busy lately, and not hugely motivated. Hopefully that will change after I've finished my exams so I might get back to posting a little more regularly.**

**Please favourite or whatever if you liked and let me know what you think, any comments are welcome, even the horrible ones (just please don't threaten to kill your cat (or another pet/person) if I don't update, I don't want to responsible for anyone's death or arrest.)**


	7. Chapter 7

I didn't take long for Arya to finish her pizza, and everyone else was still eating, so she took out her sketch pad and a pencil and started doodling. What she was drawing she didn't know, she was just going with the flow and seeing what came out.

Dan was surprised by how quickly Arya finished her pizza. Even though she was tall, she had such a slender frame, he didn't think she'd be able to eat so much so fast. He peered over her shoulder to see what she was doing and noticed she was drawing. He wasn't quite certain what it was, but it looked like a dragon breathing fire towards a group of people, and there was one person with a sword protecting them. He had a déjà vu from when he looked over her shoulder this morning. God, was it only this morning? He knew it was very clichéd, but he felt like he'd known her for longer, even though he didn't really know that much about her. He looked back at his own food before anyone noticed him staring and finished eating.

Everyone else finished eating roughly the same time as each other, and soon enough the conversation picked up again. Since Chris was engrossed in conversation with PJ, Dan took the opportunity to talk to Arya, something he'd been wanting to do properly for hours. He just hoped that how he'd been acting around her hadn't put her off him. "So, all those people crowded around you earlier... You make YouTube videos? I dont mean to offend, but you just don't seem the type of person that would make videos."

Arya smiled. "I'm a lot different on camera."

"So what type of content do you make?" Dan asked, genuinely curious as to what Arya did in her spare time.

"It depends on what I fancy doing really. Sometimes I vlog, sometimes I draw, and on very rare occasions, when I have the time, I make little skits." Arya and Dan continued chatting for quite a while, talking about anything from music to video games to food, all of it very trivial. Violet kept some obvious points out about her life, but they were both really enjoying talking to each other. they were completely oblivious that pretty much everyone had quietened down or stopped talking to listen to hteir conversation because, even though nobody had voiced it, they were all curious to know who Arya was. After a few minutes, Arya realised that everyone was silent and had been listening to everything she'd been saying. She stopped talking and blushed, embarrassed that everyone was listening to her. "Has everyone finished then?" She asked, diffusing the silence in the room. It felt unusual to her that they had been the only ones in the restaurant all afternoon.

"Yeah I guess so, unless anyone wants dessert?" Dean said from across the table.

"Nahh, I'm full." Jack said, a few people agreeing with him.

The bill came for their meal and they split it between them. Dan insisted on paying for Arya's share, and after much protest, she eventually agreed. She'd find some way of giving it back to him at some point.

"I might grab something on the way out." Arya mentioned, she was still hungry. She'd skipped breakfast that morning, and hadn't eaten anything the night before either.

"There's a great little coffee shop not too far from here." Phil interjected. "We could go there if you're still hungry. I'll see if anyone wants to come with." He quickly went round asking the others. "Jack and Dean aren't coming, they said they're too tired, Evan's coming with us, and Carrie said she would, but she's going to see her parents." Arya nodded. _So that leaves Dan, Phil, Chris, PJ and Evan, cool._

They spent the next few minutes saying their goodbyes. Arya gave her number to the three who were leaving ang hugged them, feeling like she'd made a few good friends.

"I'll call you soon, maybe we can hang out, if you're not too busy that is." Carrie winked, making Arya go bright red, her cheeks almost matching her hair.

"Stop it!" she said, playfully shoving Carrie. "Anyway, I'll see you. Bye." She said as the trio walked away. The rest of them huddled together. there was still six of them, but it had gotten an awful lot colder while they'd been in the restaurant, so they were grateful when they arrived at the cafe and bundled themselves in.

They grabbed some chairs and sat themselves around a small table. Arya sat herself in the corner and they were getting comfortable when she thought she saw someone she recognised. Lean, muscular body, short, tightly curled blonde hair, and when he turned around, pale blue eyes and smouldering lips. Martin. What the hell was he doing here? He was supposed to be going to University in Glasgow, not working as a waiter in London! Arya froze, sheer terror in her eyes. She thought she'd lost him when she moved to London, she thought she'd never have to face him again.

**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the absurdly long wait for this chapter, aside from the exams, I was having a slight crisis on how to end the chapter. Updates should start ti pick up again in the next few weeks, but I can't promise anything.**

**Let me know what you think, I'll answer any questions you have about the story or the characters so far, and I have a tendency not to proof read my work, so if there's any spelling mistakes or unfinished sentences, please do point them out.**

**Thanks for reading, love you mucho ^_^**


	8. Chapter 8

Arya froze for a second, sheer terror in her eyes. She quickly realised that she was trembling and excused herself to the toilet, before everyone had sat down properly. She kept her head down and avoided making eye contact with any of the guys out of fear that they'd notice the despair in her eyes. They didn't need any of her troubles to worry about, they had lives of their own, with their own problems. She had to restrain herself from running to the toilet, she knew she would only draw attention to herself if she did.

As soon as the door was shut, she sank to the floor and sobbed. What was she going to do? Nobody would believe her if she told them who he was, or what he had done to her. Nobody ever thought that someone so good looking could be so sinister. But why? Why, after 2 years, did he have to show up **today**? Why did he have to come and ruin the best day she'd had in what seemed like forever. Arya slowly managed to make herself stop shaking and stood up. She went over to the mirror and checked her appearance. She rummaged around in her bag and fished out her concealer and applied some more to cover up the tear marks and her red nose. _Whatever happens, I can't let him recognise me._ She thought. She'd changed a lot since Martin had last seen her. He knew her as Hope, young, naive and vulnerable. Since then she'd grown out the brown dye that she used to have in her hair to reveal her natural red (although she kept the blue streak), and all the bruises that used to cover her face had long gone, and she had legally changed her name to Arya.

She stopped for a minute as she remembered what it had been like. Nobody had believed her when she tried to tell them, so eventually she gave up trying. At first he would just get angry and start yelling at her, then he'd shove her against the wall and storm off, only to come back a few hours later crying and begging her forgiveness. Of course she forgave him, she didn't know what else to do. She'd always had quite a trusting and caring nature, even in spite of everything she'd gone through. The violence ensued not long after. Black eyes, split lips, bruises around her neck. She tried going to her mother, but it was no use. Her family had always been less than supportive, and she was too terrified to leave him. It was a small village, and she didn't have anywhere else to go, no friends, and the few police officers in the area were all close friend of Martin's dad, so she kept it to herself. She'd hoped that when she left for university she would have been rid of Martin, and her parents as well, but her father had been given the opportunity to open up a cafe in London, which of course he took, so they followed her there. Anyway, she couldn't leave her little sister Katie alone in the hands of her abusive parents, so she ended up working for her father, just to keep an eye on Katie. Arya would be glad when the custody case was finally dealt with, so Katie could come and live with her.

Dan realised that Arya had been missing from the table for quite some time, nearly 10 minutes in fact. He asked Phil if he knew where she'd gone.

"I think she said she was going to the toilet. Hang on a sec, I'll go check." Phil got up and headed down the hallway to the door that said 'Ladies' and knocked on it.

"Just a second!" Came the muffled reply. It sounded shaky.

"It's okay, it's just me, Phil." He called back. "Are you okay? You've been in there for quite a while."

The door swung open, with Arya just standing there. She'd taken her hat off and her hair was ruffled, covering her face. He noticed that her eyes were bloodshot and she was keeping them pointed towards the floor.

Arya tried to walk past him, but Phil stuck his arm out, blocking her way. "Hey, hey, hey. Arya, what's wrong?" He asked, turning her to face him and look him directly in the eyes. She tried to look like there was nothing wrong, but Phil could see the fear hidden behind well practised layers of nonchalance.

Arya was trying to pretend that everything was okay, but she could see that Phil wasn't falling for it. She sighed, letting her shoulders droop as she did so. "It's a long story... tell you later?" She said, hoping Phil wouldn't make her talk right away, and also hoping that he's forget to ask her later.

Phil didn't want to let the subject drop so easily, he could see that it was clearly troubling her, but he saw the pleading look in her eyes and instead pulled her into a tight embrace, stroking her back soothingly. He had no idea what might be wrong, but he sensed that now wasn't the right time to talk. When they separated, Phil grabbed Arya by the wrist and pulled her back down the hall. When they got back in their places, Dan threw Phil a questioning look, but Phil just shook his head and sat down.

To Arya's relief, Martin didn't seem to recognise her, although he could be very deceptive when he wanted to be, so she couldn't really tell. Despite her earlier worries, Arya managed to relax slightly and spent quite a lot of time chatting to Evan and Chris, who were sat next to her. They didn't spend that much time talking about Youtube, despite that being the main thing they had in common, although they did seem intent on asking Arya about **her** Youtube channel, since she was the only one nobody knew anything about.

She replied to the most normal questions easily, -How long have you been on Youtube? _6 years watching, nearly 4 years creating._ -How many subscribers do you have? _about 1500. _-How many videos have you made? _somewhere around 150, _she'd lost count after the second year, and she hadn't bothered checking lately. They already knew what content she created from earlier, so that didn't come up.

"What's your channel name?" Chris asked. He seemed pretty intrigued by Arya's Youtube pass time.

"HopeInTheTARDIS." She replied. "I know, it's crap name, but I was 16, bored, and obsessed with Doctor Who, so... yeah..."

"I think it's a great name." Chris purred, leaning in closer to her.

Arya scrunched her nose up as Chris got nearer to her. "Thanks." She smiled. "But your breath still stinks, so I'm not going to let you get too close to me." She said, turning his face away with her finger. Chris feigned a hurt look, then Arya gently punched his arm, laughing. "Cheer up you muppet."

Dan noticed Arya's eyes kept flicking up towards the waiter that was serving them evry minute or so during the conversation. _Oh great. _He thought. _I'm never going to get a chance. That gu_y's _a hunk. What with Chris flirting with her, and her obviously being interested in the waiter, she's never going to be interested in me._

The conversation turned to different topics after that, like what they were studying, what a failure their social lives were, what they'd dreamed to be when they were kids. Arya said that when she was 5, and she was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she replied 'a marshmallow unicorn', something she was still planning on being (part time of course).

After a while, Evan had to head home. He exchanged numbers with Arya and then said his goodbyes.

"I'll check out your channel soon then. Maybe we can do a collab some time... I'll call you yeah?" He said after he released Arya from the hug.

"Yeah, cool." She replied, ecstatic about all the new friends she'd gained that day, not only that, but they were all Youtubers, people that she'd previously only ever dreamed of meeting!

Chris and PJ hadn't left as they were going to Dan and Phil's apartment to spend the night and do some filming. Arya thought she might make a vlog or something while she was there, so she was glad she'd put her camera in her bag that morning.

"Shall we go then?" She asked, revelling in the idea of actually being in Dan and Phil's apartment, something she'd seen on screen so often, and now she was going to actually be there! She had to clam herself down before she got too excited.

"Yeah, of course." Phil said.

They stood there for a few seconds before Arya got a bit impatient. "You do know you'll have to lead me there, right? I don't know where you live." She said, looking up at them.

"Oh, yeah, right." Dan mumbled and started walking, before stopping suddenly and turning to face Arya. "Before we start though, you have to promise not to tell anyone where we live, okay?"

"Yeah, alright." Arya shrugged. It's not like she really had anyone to tell anyway. The walk to the apartment was pretty silent, apart from the few occasional comments, as they'd worn out most of their conversation at the cafe.

When they arrived at the apartment, Arya was surprised how close it was to where her parents lived, and more specifically, where she worked. It was so close in fact, that when she looked out of the windows lining the hallway outside the apartment, she could see the cafe just a few rows back.

Dan stopped outside the apartment door. "Welcome to our apartment." He said, swinging the door open.

**A/N: Hey guys, I've FINALLY finished the chapter! I've not died or anything, and it's the summer holidays for me now (at last!), so hopefully I should get a bit quicker at writing these things (no promises though). Also if you've been following my other stories, the next chapters should be out soon, I've just got a couple of problems to work past.**

**As usual, please give me some feedback, I would really appreciate that, even if it's just to say that you think it's good (or not).**


	9. Chapter 9

The guys waited for Arya to walk into the apartment before following. However, Arya didn't move, she just stood there, staring into the apartment with wide eyes. She eventually glanced at Dan for assurance, who smiled and nodded towards the door, indicating for her to enter.

The guys were glad when Arya finally entered the apartment. They didn't want to seem impatient or anything, it's just that it was quite cold in the hallway, and after spending most of the day in the cold, they wanted to be somewhere that was comfortable and warm (and where they didn't have to buy something to stay there).

"Go sit on the sofa or something... make yourself comfortable." Phil said before heading off to the kitchen , taking Dan with him. Arya thought that getting comfortable was going to be a big ask, considering the situation, but when she say Chris and PJ casually flop themselves on the big brown sofa, she felt a lot more at ease.

"Who wants a hot chocolate?" Phil called from the kitchen.

"ME!" Chris and PJ shouted simultaneously.

"Do you want one Arya?" Dan asked, popping his head around the door.

Arya nodded. "Umm... yeah, thanks." She replied and sat cross-legged on the sofa.

A few seconds later, Dan's head appeared again. "Hey, Arya, why don't you show the guys those pictures you were drawing earlier?" He asked, grinning. Arya stared at him wide eyed. She didn't like people looking at her work. "What? They're amazing, you should be proud of them. Granted, most of the, are a bit muddy, but still..." He shrugged and disappeared back into the kitchen.

The three of them on the sofa chatted idly as Phil made hot chocolate for everyone. After a bit of encouragement, Arya took out her drawings (or at least the ones that weren't all muddy and covered in blood), which were met with much approval.

After a bit of small talk, Chris asked "So, Ari, do you mind if I call you Ari?" Arya thought for a second then shook her head, there were worse things she could be called. "You go to university?"

She nodded again. "Yeah, the City University." She filled in. She didn't want to seem like she was being difficult to talk to.

PJ was the next to talk. "Cool, what do you study? Something art related I guess?" He queried, raising his eyebrows in that way that made him look like a serial killer.

"No, actually... I study Actuarial Science..." She replied shyly. She never like telling people their assumptions were wrong. Most people usually felt offended or upset when she did that.

PJ, however, looked more intrigued than anything. "Really? I would've never taken you for an academic kind of girl. No offence." He said, adding the last part on quickly. There was a slight tension in the room for a second.

"None taken. I think of it more like a compliment really." She smiled.

PJ released the breath that he hadn't realised he'd been holding in. After that they carried on chatting about random things until Dan and Phil came bursting through the kitchen door, both of them laden with mugs of hot chocolate. The drinks were handed out and they all just sat for a minute, quietly sipping from their mugs. Arya had sat herself on a bean bag, allowing all four boys to sit on the sofa. After all, she didn't live there, it was only right that she allowed Dan and Phil to sit on their **own** sofa.

Phil pulled Dan into the kitchen.

"What do you want?" Dan asked defensively.

"She's nice isn't she?" Phil asked, although it sounded more like he was making a statement. He didn't need to say who 'she' was, Dan knew perfectly well who he was talking about.

"Yeah, I guess. So?" Dan said, trying to sound nonchalant. He didn't expect it to work, he'd known Phil for too long to hide anything from him.

"Mhm..." Phil nodded knowingly, then turned and shouted towards the lounge. "Who wants hot chocolate?"

The response was almost immediate. "ME!"

Dan hadn't heard anything from Arya though. He popped his head out of the door. "You want one Arya?" He asked. She looked so cute and innocent sat on the sofa with her legs crossed. She said she did, but before he went back into the kitchen to help Phil, he had an idea. "Hey, Arya, why don't you show the guys those pictures you were drawing earlier?" She just stared at him like he'd asked her to strip. "What? They're amazing, you should be proud of them. Granted, most of the, are a bit muddy, but still..." He shrugged and smiled as he went and stood next to Phil. Dan thought she could do with the extra confidence boost. She'd seemed quite reserved and quiet, especially since they left the coffee shop earlier. That reminded him. He'd been meaning to ask Phil what was wrong with her. "So, umm... what was wrong with Arya earlier... in the coffee shop?" He asked. he assumed that Phil knew, he just didn't want to say in front of everyone.

"I don't know, she didn't tell me." He replied, feigning concentration on stirring the cocao powder into the milk.

Dan sighed. Phil knew that sigh, it was one that Dan used when he didn't believe what Phil was saying.

"What? I'm telling the truth!" He said defiantly. Phil realised he was raising his voice and calmed himself down. "It was most probably something superficial anyway. We've known her for what, half a day? For all we know, it could've been that she realised she had something in her teeth and spent the next 10 minutes trying to get it out." He lied. He knew it was a lot more than that, but he didn't want to worry Dan.

Phil's words soothed Dan and he relaxed his shoulders. He had no idea he'd been so tense for the last couple of hours. "Yeah... you're most probably right..." Dan sighed. "Thanks Phil." He said and hugged him. He couldn't have asked for a better friend, Phil always knew what to say (except when it came to talking to girls of course). He peeked through a crack in the door to make sure she wasn't being overwhelmed. He smiled affectionately as he saw her laughing and chatting with Chris and PJ, and he noticed that PJ had some of her drawings on her lap.

Phil pulled him out of his daydreaming state soon enough. "DAN!" Dan jumped and turned around. Phil sighed. "About time, you've been staring for ages! So much for helping me... Can you help me take these in?"

Dan grabbed two of the mugs and went to open the door. "Hot chocolate's ready!" He called as he entered the lounge. Phil followed him, precariously carrying three mugs.

Arya jumped off the sofa and went to take two of the cups off Phil and handed one to Chris. She stopped for a second afterwards. "Sorry, I'm a waitress, it's automatic." She looked at Dan and Phil. "Sit down, I'll sit on a bean bag or something." Before either of them could protest, she walked across the room, grabbed a bean bag and hauled it back to the sofa. She dropped it just in front of the sofa and flopped down on it to see Dan still standing and staring at her. "What? You're the one who lives here, so **you** should be able to sit on your **own** sofa... right?" At that Dan surrendered and sat down on the sofa.

**A/N: Hey guys! As I ****_didn't_**** promise, there's less of a gap between the updates.**

**Let me know what you think! Here's a bit of a teaser for the next chapter, it involves twister!**

**Thanks for reading and I love you mucho! ^_^**


	10. Chapter 10

**Just a heads up, this chapter went on a little longer than I expected, so the twister isn't going to be in this chapter (sorry!). It will DEFINITELY be in the next chapter though, I promise!**

Chris was the first to break the silence. "Hey, guys," he started, directing the conversation towards Dan and Phil. "You know Ari's studying Actuarial Science. I mean, she's athletic, she can draw, **and** she's brainy, plus she's drop dead gorgeous." He winked at Arya.

Arya cringed in embarrassment. "Shut up." She gave Chris' leg a whack.

"What? I'm just telling it how it is. I think we've got ourselves the perfect girl here... I call dibs!" He laughed.

"Different topic **please**!" Arya begged, throwing her arms up in the air.

"Okay, umm... I had an idea for a video planned." PJ started.

"Yeah, so did I..." Dan added.

They both looked at Arya apologetically. She knew what they meant. They'd planned Fantastic Foursome videos, and Fantastic Foursome meant no Arya. Arya didn't mind whatsoever. She'd spent so much time around people today, she needed some alone time.

"Go ahead, make your videos. Don't let me get in the way." She stood up.

"No, don't go!" Dan blurted out. Somehow though, as soon as he said it, he knew that it was irrelevant. He had a feeling that Arya wasn't planning on going in the first place, not yet anyway.

"I wasn't planning on leaving." She said, half smiling. Dan blushed, but she carried on, seeming oblivious to his embarrassment. "I was planning on doing something by myself anyway. Do you mind if I use one of your bedrooms?" She asked. Chris raised his eyebrows. "Oi, not like that, you pervert!" She grinned, whacking Chris again.

That made Dan smile. He doubted Chris had ever been hit so many times in one day before. "Let me show you where it is." He stood up and lead Arya up the stairs to his bedroom. "This is it." He said, swinging the door open for her, kind of like when he opened the door to the apartment. This time however, Arya seemed a lot more comfortable, walking in and dropping her bag at the foot of the bed. She sat on the edge of the bed and looked at him leaning on the doorframe, her shimmering red hair tumbling over her shoulders. He liked the look of her sitting on his bed like that... maybe with less clothes though... _DAN! Stop thinking like that! You haven't even known her a day! And she doesn't even like you in that way!_ He mentally chastised himself for allowing his mind to wander that far. He'd have to control himself in the future.

Dan realised he'd been standing there for a while, and when he looked back at Arya she was sifting through her bag. He hoped she hadn't seen him and thought of what he might have been thinking.

Arya looked up at him, tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and grinned. Dan noticed a streak of blue hidden in the masses of her hair. "Thanks, by the way."

"No problem. If you need anything, don't be afraid to call me, or run in and ask. What ever you want to do. We'll all be in the living room if you do need anything." Dan grabbed his tripod and camera and walked back down the hallway, back to the rest of the guys, closing the door behind him. They had a few of things planned that might take them a couple of hours.

Arya only really realised where she was when Dan had closed the door. She was in **DAN'S FREAKING BEDROOM**! She calmed herself down before she started freaking out, and carried on sifting through her bag. Honestly, it was like she had a whole new universe in her bag, she felt like she'd placed an extension charm on it or something. Eventually, she managed to find what she was looking for... her camera. She set it on the bed and pulled out her laptop from it as well.

She switched on her laptop and started typing a script. She thought that while she was here, she might as well make a video. She spent the next 20 minutes typing out her script. It wasn't particularly interesting, she'd normally take a lot longer typing her script, but it was a question and answer video, so it didn't need a lot of work.

After looking around the room a bit, she found the spot that Dan usually used for filming his videos. He'd taken his tripod and camera into the living room with him, so she set her camera as close to that spot as she could and started filming. She was quite proud of the fact that she had a proper camera like all of the professional Youtubers. It had taken her ages to save up for it.

"Hello there my lovely amigos! How are we all feeling today? I know I'm ecstatic! For 2 main reasons. The first one, which was earlier today... The festive gathering! I went to my first gathering today to meet some of MY favourite YouTubers, and instead I had about 20 of you run up to me saying that you watched my videos! So I would like to thank, -let's see if I can remember your names -" She listed a bunch of names, starting with Tom. "-for making my time at the festive gathering very enjoyable and a lot warmer, thank you."

Arya paused and took a sip of the hot chocolate, which, surprisingly, she still had some left of. "Now, for the next really important thing that's making me feel ecstatic right now. Some of you, might have noticed that my background is looking pretty familiar to some other YouTuber's. I'll give you a second to figure it out." She paused. "Yeah, you're most probably freaking out right now aren't you? I'm in DAN'S BEDROOM!" She made a shocked "O" face and started having a silent, theatrical freaking out session. She quietened her voice for the next part, she realised she's gradually been getting louder. She hoped the guys hadn't been able to hear it from the living room. "No, I didn't break in through the window, actually -" She stopped as the door was flung open. It was Dan. A very breathless Dan.

"I heard shouting, are you-" He stopped himself as he saw Arya sat in front of the camera, looking sincerely apologetic.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so loud. I didn't ruin anything did I?" Arya relaxed a little when Dan smiled.

"It's fine, we were just going over some stuff. Why don't you come and film with us later? We can all do something together then."

"Great!" Arya replied, beaming. "Just, something before you go, if it isn't too much to ask..." Dan didn't even let her finish her sentence before he agreed. Arya mentally laughed evilly, she could potentially make Dan do anything now... But no, she shoved that thought aside. "I just need to to verify something for my err... camera..." She said, looking between the camera and Dan.

Dan laughed lightly, she looked so awkward having someone see her talk to a camera. "Yeah, sure... no problem. What do you want me to do?"

"This is going to be a bit weird." Arya warned him. She grabbed his sleeve and yanked him onto the seat. "See! I wasn't lying, he's here!" She started creepily stroking his face and his shoulder. "And he's all **mine!**" Arya said manically and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer to her. "My precious." She said in a voice that sounded uncannily like Gollum's.

The next thing Dan knew, Arya was licking his neck. He spasmed and fell on the floor, clutching his neck. "JESUS CHRIST ARYA! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!" He shrieked, while Arya was convulsing in silent laughter. He had to admit though, in a weird way, he kind of liked it.

"I am **so** sorry!" She managed to say at last, still laughing. "They made me promise!"

"What, they made you promise to lick my neck?!"

"Yeah, they said if I didn't they would kill their pets, and I don't want to be responsible for any animals' deaths. You're not the only one with crazy subscribers you know." Arya had managed to calm herself down by the end of the sentence.

She walked over to him and offered her hand to help him up. Instead he yanked her onto the floor with him and started tickling her. Arya, being extremely ticklish, screamed and tried to roll away from him but he pulled her back laughing and carried on tickling her. "No! Stop it! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please stop!" She yelled whilst trying to wriggle away from him.

Thankfully he stopped and they both just lay on the floor breathing heavily. Arya didn't think she'd have been able to take much more tickling. She could feel the pain coming from just underneath her ribs.

At that moment, Phil burst through the door, closely followed by Chris and PJ. "We heard screaming, are you okay?"

"Yeah." Arya replied breathlessly from the floor, warranting an odd look from Chris.

"What happened?" Phil asked slowly, unsure of whether he wanted to hear the answer.

"I licked Dan's neck-" Arya started, giggling.

"-and I got my revenge." Dan finished, laughing lightly.

"Why on Earth-" Chris started, but then decided against it. "You know, I don't even want to know." He said, and just walked out of the room.

Phil and PJ just shrugged and went to help Dan and Arya off the floor. They brushed themselves off and they were just about to leave when Arya had an idea.

"Umm... Dan, I was just thinking... I was going to do a Q&A video, but I though, maybe I could it with you four." She said hopefully.

"Of course." Dan smiled. "Do you want to come and watch us film our videos?" He suggested.

"Yeah, sure. I'll just put my stuff away and then I'll come in. Oh, and er-" She added before Dan left. "Where's the bathroom?"

"Just there." He replied, pointing to his right. "I'll see you in a minute."

Arya slumped in the chair for a minute after Dan had gone before putting her things in her bag and headed to the bathroom.

Arya lifted up her top and ripped off the bandage from her side, revelaing a 3 inch long wound surrounded by a giant purple-black bruise that spread up her ribs. The bruises on her face may have gone, but she had even worse problems that she never let on about. Working for her alcoholic father, she often ended up in hospital when he went on one of his rampages. She usually received her injuries when she was protecting Katie. Nobody would ever lay a finger on Katie as long as she could help it. Katie had been born when Arya was 7 years old and Arya had pretty much brought her up, making sure that Katie was okay and had often been referred to as 'mummy'.

This particular wound she'd received a almost week ago from landing on a broken vodka bottle when her father had thrown her down the stairs, yelling at her never to come back. Obviously she'd have to come back to work, but her father would've been so drunk the night before that he would have no memory of what he'd done to her and he'd most probably yell at her for being late.

So, for the second time that month (even though it had only just reached the second week of the month) Arya hauled herself to the hospital to have it stitched up. The staff at the hospital had given up asking how she received her injury since she'd been in so many times before and had either not told them or had made something up (even though they didn't know she was lying since they were pretty good lies).

Arya pulled the first aid kit out of her bag for the second time that day and cleaned and re-bandaged her side, and then did the same for her hand. It was a long process, but she eventually managed to finish.

**A/N: Hey :) This time I made sure I didn't call Arya 'Violet'... Yay me!**

**So if you've been reading my amazinphil fanfic you may realise quite a few similarities between the two (such as the back story, the sister, the red hair), but I thought them both up at pretty much the same time, so sorry if it gets a bit confusing or if it seems a bit too similar but that's just cus it is. **

**Anyhows, let me know what you think :) (and I'm sorry again for the no twister)**

**Thanks for reading and I love you all mucho ^_^**


	11. Chapter 11

Arya emerged from the bathroom a while later an went to join the boys in the living room. She trod quietly as to not disturb them. When she reached the bottom of the stairs her phone rang. _Shit._

"Sorry." She said to the guys, who looked like they were in the middle of filming. She fished her phone out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID. I was Katie. She answered without hesitation. "Hey, what's up? Hold on a sec." She said into the phone. while mouthing to Dan to ask where she could take the call, she didn't want to disrupt the filming any more than she had already. He replied that the living room was okay, it had the best signal. Arya walked over to the edge of the room and looked out of the window, where she could see her family's cafe. "Shoot."

"Dad's got drunk again..." Katie whispered down the phone. "What should I do?"

_Fuck. Fuckity_ fuck. Arya went onto automatic as she spoke to her sister, having done this a fair few times, but the concern was showing in her voice."Can you get to Emma's house?" Arya asked as she started picking at the window frame.

"No, she's gone to Kent for the weekend, and Stephanie's still at ballet, so she won't be home for another few hours." The line started crackling. Katie was most probably hiding in the bathroom.

Arya raised her hand to her mouth and pondered the options for a moment, ready to ditch the guys as soon as there seemed to be any trouble at Katie's end. "Okay, get out of there and stay at my apartment tonight. You've got the key, right?"

"No, mum's taken it." _Typical_. Their mum had been trying to stop Katie from visiting Arya for months.

"Oh... you'll have to use the spare then. It's behind the fire extinguisher. I'm not at home at the moment... and to get into the building, just ring 4B and tell the guy you're my sister. He'll let you in." Arya instructed her. She glanced over at the guys and saw quizzical looks on all their faces.

"Umm... okay. When are you going to be back then?" Katie asked. There was a lot of movement at the end of the line. Katie was most probably heading to her bedroom to gather up some things.

"I'm not sure. Just let me know when you get there okay?" She heard a mumble of recognition. "Alright then. Love you, bye."

Arya had been vaguely aware of guys as she was talking to Katie, and she was now aware of a deathly silence in the room.

Arya turned to face the guys. "Sorry for interrupting you... I'll just go sit over here shall I?" She walked over to the sofa and quietly sat down.

"Shall we carry on then?" Phil asked no one in particular. The rest of them stirred and they carried on filming. Arya had to contain herself from bursting out laughing at some points.

When they'd finished filming Dan's video, Phil and PJ disappeared off to what Arya assumed was the 'nerd room' to get the things they needed for the video, and Dan dropped himself next to Arya on the sofa. While Chris was helping PJ set up the equipment, Phil re-entered the room, carrying something.

Arya literally jumped out of her seat and sprang over to Phil. "Is that a twister mat?" She asked excitedly. She'd always wanted to play twister but she never had the chance. "I've always wanted one of them!" She managed to stop herself from going completely crazy in her elated state. She suddenly looked down, discouraged. "It's for the video, isn't it?" She asked in a quiet voice.

PJ walked up behind her. "Yeah. Hold on, you mean you haven't played twister before?"

Arya shrugged. "Guilty as charged." She admitted.

"Well then, we're definitely having a game afterwards. Come on Dan, get your ass over here, we've got some filming to do."

Dan eventually managed to drag himself off the sofa.

Arya dropped down onto the bean bag that was next to her. It was so interesting to see the guys working. They put so much time into it and everyone else only ever gets to see a few minutes of it. Once again, Arya had to prevent herself from laughing while they filmed and ended up looking like she was having some sort of seizure from silent laughing.

After about half an hour they finished PJ's video.

"I can't believe you played twister in skinny jeans." Arya chuckled as they flopped themselves on the sofa.

"It all adds to the comedy." Chris grinned. "And it definitely worked, you looked like you were dying for a while. I was tempted to call an ambulance."

"Ha ha, very funny." Arya rolled her eyes at him, but smiled.

"I try." He smirked.

Arya shifted slightly in the bean bag so that she was facing the sofa. "So, what do we do now?"

"Didn't you say earlier that you wanted to film something with us?" Dan asked. Arya nodded. "So what did you have in mind?"

Arya looked forlornly at the twister mat that was still laid out in the middle of the floor.

"Twister?" PJ jumped up. "Of course! Come on! We can't end tonight with Arya not having played twister!"

* * *

"You guys don't mind if I.. " Arya lifted her camera as an end to her question.

"Sure, no problem." Dan and Phil replied simultaneously.

"Here, let me put it on the tripod." PJ said and swapped his camera for Arya's.

"So, is there anything you want us to do?" Dan asked. "And no touching or licking the neck this time."

Arya smiled and briefed them on the idea she'd had not long beforehand and they started filming. The beginning went smoothly, and then it came to actually playing twister.

"This is going to be fun, five fully grown adults playing twister in skinny jeans. What could go wrong?" Arya joked.

"Ready?" Dan asked as he turned on the speaker.

Arya thought she saw him wink at her, but she dismissed it. "Umm... no?" She laughed nervously.

"Well tough luck, you're going first." Dan said, just before the instructor on the speakers said "Left hand, yellow."

Dan had a nice view of Arya's bum from where he was standing. Not that it meant anything, she and Chris had been flirting with each other all evening.

"Right foot, blue." It was Dan's turn. He stood next to Arya and stretched his foot towards the middle of the mat.

Two rounds in, all five of them were completely entangled in each other. Arya was in the most contorted position Dan had ever seen, and he was sure that if he or any of the others were in that position, they would've fallen down ages ago.

"Are you alright there Arya?" Dan asked.

"No, I've got Chris' bum in my face, haven't I?" She retorted.

"Right hand, green."

"Finally!" Arya said as she pretty much flipped over and came face to face with Dan (even though her face was upside down).

Phil was next to move. He reached over Arya and slipped, flattening her. She let out a small yelp as she collapsed under Phil's weight.

"Ow..." Arya groaned as she lay spread out on the mat with one leg trapped underneath her. She half laughed at her situation, but that just made it hurt more, not that anyone would notice. She waited for Phil to get off her and then let him help her up.

The game wasn't over yet, since Chris, Dan and PJ were still playing , so they both went and sat on the sofa.

"Do you want something to drink?" Phil asked quietly.

"Ooh, yes please. Could I have a cuppa? I haven't had any tea **all** day! Milky with two sugars please." Arya replied, tucking her legs underneath her.

At that moment, Dan fell over and joined her on the sofa. "Someone's getting comfortable." He smirked and flopped down nest to her.

Arya blushed an looked down at her hands. She had no idea what to say. Luckily, Chris collapsed declaring PJ the winner, and Phil came back with a steaming cup of tea for Arya which she accepted gratefully.

Arya went to reposition the camera so she could talk to it, dragging Dan with her so that they could finish the video.

"And PJ wins! Well, that concludes todays twister filled adventures with the Fantastic Foursome! I don't think I could manage another round, I'm not built for this game."

"Are you kidding?!" Dan burst out. "You're the most flexible out of all of us!"

"Yeah," Chris chimed in. "I bet being that flexible is handy in the bedroom." He winked at her seductively, slinging his arm over her shoulders.

Arya rolled her eyes and punched him gently, careful not to spill her tea. "And with that, I shall leave you and let your minds wonder. If I don't see some fanfics about this soon I will be dearly disappointed." She winked. "Adios from the phan flat, and you shall see me soon." She saluted and went to turn off the camera.

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys! So new chapter with the twister that I promised for the last chapter (oops). **

**Here's a thing for any artsy people out there who read this, while I was writing this chapter, I was imagining images of the stuff happening, so if anyone could draw something for me I would love you forever (I would do it myself but I'm terrible at all those cute little fanart things like what you find on tumblr). if not, that's cool too, it's just an idea. :)**

**Thank you so much for reading and I love you all mucho! ^_^**


	12. Chapter 12

Arya went to check her phone. There was a text from Katie. "Just got to your apartment. There was no food in the fridge so I ordered a pizza. When you going to be home? Love K x" It was only from 10 minutes ago. Arya replied "Money for pizza's in my top bedside drawer. I'm not sure when I'll be home. Do your homework and get some sleep. Love Arya x"

"So what do we do now?" Chris asked.

"Well it's only -" Dan checked his phone. "-10 pm, so how about we play another game?"

Arya shrugged. _I should really be getting home soon, but I guess one more game couldn't hurt._ "Alright, but nothing active. I've had enough of that today."

Chris sidled up to her. "What do you mean? All you've done is play twister."

Arya laughed. "If only you knew..."

"Well then tell me, I want to know." He implored.

_Bless him._ Arya thought. He looked genuinely interested. "Well, if you insist." She started, preparing herself for Chris' reaction. "This morning I had to run over 5 miles from where I live to the festive gathering because I was being chased by a few..." Arya paused as she tried to think of a way to phrase it, "...not so nice men and their dogs. I think Dan and Phil saw me running across the park. Then there was the incident with that _evil_ little dog chasing me up the tree. As you might of noticed, I **really **don't like dogs. So now, after playing twister, I hope you realise why I'd rather not do any more physical activity today."

Arya finished her little rant and looked up to see Chris standing there, mouth gaping. She also realised that PJ, Phil and even Dan were staring at her, shocked.

Chris quickly recovered himself. "Well, I guess my plans for this evening are ruined then." He joked.

Arya breathed out a laugh and shook her head. Chris' ability to make pretty much every situation sexual amazed her.

"Well, anyway.. How about we play 20 questions?" Dan suggested, running his fingers through his hair.

"That would be pretty useless since I know loads about you guys." Arya said, before she realised what she'd just said. "Sorry, that wasn't meant to sound stalkerish." She blushed.

"Wait, I have an idea. How about we play 'Truth, Dare, Kiss or Promise'?" Chris proposed.

The others shrugged. "Yeah, alright. What do you think Arya?" Dan asked.

Arya shrugged. "It's fine by me I guess. You know, you can call me Ari if you want. Just not in front of the camera or people who don't already know my name."

Dan looked slightly confused. "Okay, but why not?"

"Because no doubt someone will shorten the A and pronounce it 'Ah-ri' and then the next thing you know, my name's Harry and I'm a bloke."

"Arya... you're over thinking. I'm sure no one will call you Harry and turn you into a man." Dan reassured, squeezing her arm slightly.

"Just promise me that you won't call me Ari on camera or introduce me to people as Ari." Arya pleaded, stepping closer towards him.

Dan raised his hands in submission. "Okay, okay. We won't."

"Thank you." Arya said gratefully, stepping away from Dan and turning to the others. "So, truth, dare, kiss or promise... Isn't that just like regular truth or dare? No one ever chooses kiss, do they? Although, I guess it could be pretty fun if you have to kiss really weird things like... someone's toe." She half smiled and half cringed at the thought. "So, umm... shall we get started?"

The guys murmured their agreement and they all got themselves comfy around the sofa. Arya set herself on the bean bag, Dan, Chris and PJ were on the sofa with Dan sat closest to her, and Phil sat, legs sprawled, on the floor.

Phil started as he was the oldest. "Ari, truth or dare?" He asked. "... or kiss or promise?" He added on quickly.

"Dare." She grinned.

Phil paused as he thought of something. "I dare you to lick your foot."

"Okay." Arya shrugged, before kicking off her shoes and tearing off one of her socks (which happened to be bright blue with little penguins on them for all you sock perverts out there). She pulled her foot up to her face and licked it.

"Did you lick it?" Phil asked.

Arya stuck her foot out at Phil's face. "Do you want to check?"

Phil scrunched his nose up and moved his head away from the looming foot. "No thanks. I'll take your word for it."

Arya laughed and pulled her sock back on. "My turn right? Chris, truth, dare, kiss or promise."

"Kiss." He winked, smirking slightly.

Arya mentally laughed evilly. _I can have some fun with this._ "Okay, kiss PJ's armpit." She grinned. Chris groaned and lifted up PJ's arm. "Hold on a second, I need my camera." Arya leaned over and grabbed the camera from her bag and started recording. "Okay, go." She said, grinning manically.

The weirdness carried on as everyone was dared, or asked strange questions. Then it was PJ's turn. He asked Arya, and she chose dare.

"I dare you to lick Dan's neck."

"But I already did that earlier." Arya argued, Dan agreeing with her.

"Yeah, but we didn't get to see it." He smiled innocently.

Arya sighed, got up and approached Dan, who had a slightly terrified look on his face and looked ready to flee. Before he could though, PJ grabbed his t-shirt and held him in place.

Arya attempted to lick Dan's neck before he could react, but to no avail. He tried holding her back by wafting the air between them and then pushing on Arya's shoulders to keep here away from him. Arya decided she'd have to be slightly more forceful. She straddled him and pinned his wrists to the back of the sofa with her hands so he could only move his torso.

Dan carried on squirming with his eyes squeezed shut, but stopped when he realised that Arya wasn't trying to get to his neck. He opened his eyes and saw Arya's face inches away from his, and she was staring at him intently, almost lustfully. Arya slowly started to near him, her lips pouted slightly, and not taking her gaze off him for even a millisecond.

From the corner of her eye, Arya could see PJ looking very confused with his mouth hanging open, and Chris' scowling face turning crimson. He looked like he was ready to tear them apart.

Dan watched Arya's face draw ever closer to his, her lips nearing his. He could feel his heart pounding faster and faster, and as Arya's body was pressed against his, he was sure that she could feel it too.

When Arya was less than an inch away from him, she ducked her head and he felt her tongue running against his neck. His automatic response was to yelp and jerk his right shoulder up to protect his neck. Arya let go of his arms and he quickly wiped the saliva off his neck like it was a disease, but he couldn't help but think how something about it made his skin tingle, and not in a bad way.

Arya was still sat on top of him when he's finished eradicating himself of the squirmish feeling. She grinned at him innocently and he attacked her waist, tickling her furiously in payback. She squealed and curled over into him, trying to bat his arms away.

"Okay, OKAY! You've got your revenge now! **Please,** _**stop!**_" Arya cried. Dan released her and she collapsed onto him, panting heavily. "Please don't do that anymore." She said breathlessly.

"Only if you don't lick my neck." He bargained.

"Deal." She patted his chest and pushed herself off him, flopping back into the bean bag. The others were all quiet and didn't look like they were about to say anything, so Arya filled the silence. "So I guess that means we're finished daring and that now."

"Actually," Phil piped up. "Can I have one last go?" No one had any objections, she carried on. "Ari?"

"Truth... I don't want to do any more dares." She admitted.

That was just what Phil was hoping for. He didn't really want to ask her in front of the other three, but he didn't know how else to approach the subject. "What was wrong with you in hte cafe earlier? You know, when you disappeared for like 10 minutes." The others suddenly became very interested, even Chris, who'd been sulking silently at the end of the sofa.

She played it off. "Just a minor mental crisis, that's all. I mean, what would you expect? Having dinner with some of my favourite Youtubers? I **had **to fangirl at some point." She said dissmissing the subject. _What?! Well it wasn't a __**complete **__lie__**. **__ I was having a mental crisis, just not about hanging out with my favourite Youtubers. _She thought to herself, hoping the others would believe her.

Thankfully, they seemed reasonably satisfied with her response and started chatting about random things. Arya, out of habit, checked the time on her phone. 11.52pm... _I should probably start heading home now..._

"Anyhows," she started, interrupting the flow of conversation, which she immediately regretted. "It's been really great hanging out with you guys, and I would love to stay here like, forever, but it's late and I really should be heading home now and-"

Dan cut her off. "What, at this time of night? Anything could happen to you! No, you're staying here tonight."

"But I don't have anything to sleep in..." Arya protested weakly. It wasn't a very good argument , she could've easily said that she needed to go because her sister needed her, but she knew that Katie could easily look after herself, plus she **really** wanted to stay the night.

"I'll give you something of mine to wear." Arya looked ready to argue with him further, but she stayed silent instead. "So I'll take that as you're staying?" Dan assumed. Arya didn't really know what to say, so she shrugged and nodded meekly. "Great." He grinned. "I'll go get you something to wear."

As Dan traipsed off to his room, Phil took Chris and PJ to help him set up the sofa bed in the 'nerd room'. Arya took the opportunity to call Katie.

"Hey, what's up?" Katie said as she picked up.

"Hey Katie, I'm not going to be coming home tonight. You'll be okay by yourself won't you?"

"Yeah, of course. Have fun, I don't want to hear any of the details! Night!" She laughed.

"No, Katie, that's not what I-" It was too late, Katie had already hung up. _Never mind, it's not important what she thinks I'm doing anyway. _

At that moment, Dan reappeared with some clothes. He was carrying a grey t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. Arya looked dubiously at the t-shirt. She didn't usually wear anything short sleeved, but since her arms were clear and free for any cuts and bruises for the time being (although not the scars from previous cuts), she accepted the clothes and went to change. She asked Dan if she could change in his bedroom, since she hated getting changed in bathrooms (there was always something that was bound to get knocked over). Dan had no problems, so she took her bag and went to change and freshen up a little.

She emerged fresh faced a few minutes later, wearing Dan's baggy clothes. She dropped her bag next to the sofa and sat down next to Dan.

Dan shifted slighty as Arya sat next to him. She looked adorable in his oversized t-shirt, and her breath smelled... minty. "Have you brushed your teeth already?" He asked. She nodded without hesitation. "How did you...?"

Arya reached into her bag and pulled out a mid-sized toiletry bag. "Emergency travel bag. Never go anywhere without it. I has a first aid kit, a dental kit, mini shampoo and conditioner, and pretty much anything else I might need when I'm out and about." Dan nodded slowly. "So what's happening tonight then?"

"Well we should be editing the videos, but I really can't be bothered. How about we watch a movie?" Dan suggested. The others agreed, so he turned back to Arya. "What movie do you want to watch?"

Arya shrugged. "What do you have?"

"Let's watch Brave!" Phil proposed excitedly, and hopped off the sofa to find the DVD.

Phil came back and they watched the movie, with PJ sat on the bean bag and Chris settled next to Arya. About half way through the movie, Arya realised just how tired she was after everything that had happened that day, and she felt her heavy eyelids slowly closing. She tried to fight it, especially since she was really enjoying watching Brave (she'd never seen it before, only gifs of it on tumblr), but she was so exhausted that she ended up falling asleep on Dan's shoulder. Dan absent-mindedly put his arm around her.

By the end of the movie, Dan and Arya had both fallen asleep. Dan had his arm wrapped protectively around Arya, who had rested her head on his chest. Phil decided to leave them be and let PJ take Dan's bed for the night.

**A/N: So here is the long awaited 12th chapter! (this is a record for me, I have never written 12 chapters of anything before, but I have to get to 15 in each of my fanfics before September, so.. LOTS OF WORK!)**

**Let me know what you think (pleasepleaseplease do, I don't want to bore any of you if you don't like it)**

**Thank you for reading and I love you all mucho ^_^**


	13. Chapter 13

Dan woke up to the sound of a phone beeping. He mumbled to himself and squinted his eyes open. He was still in the living room, slumped on the sofa. _I must've fallen asleep watching the movie last night. _The light was streaming through the window and he could hear the bustling of traffic from the street below. He figured it might be sometime around midday.He tried to sit upright but he felt something on his chest. He looked down and saw Arya, sleeping peacefully with her arm thrown over his torso. Also, he had his own arm wrapped around her and there was a blanket thrown over both of them. He smiled affectionately at her sleeping body.

He maneuvered himself out of the position and laid Arya's head carefully down on the arm of the sofa. She murmured and shifted slightly, but thankfully she didn't wake up.

He turned around and noticed a post-it note stuck to the TV. It read "Gone out to get us some breakfast, be back soon. Phil, Chris & Peej".

He scrunched the note up and fished his phone out of his back pocket. No new notifications, and since the other three would never go anywhere without their phones, he came to the conclusion that it must've been Arya's phone that beeped. _I'll let her know when she wakes up._

Dan dragged himself to the kitchen to make himself some coffee, bumping into the glass door on the way. "Ah, fuck." He swore quietly, rubbing his forehead.

When he returned to the lounge, Arya was mumbling in her sleep and her brow was furrowed. "No, n-not the dogs... no... no..." She muttered, her head twitching restlessly.

Dan didn't like seeing her so uneasy, so he took a chance and tried to wake her up. "Arya, wake up." He breathed, shaking her shoulder lightly. She turned on her back and carried on mumbling to herself. _Maybe that wasn't enough. _He tried waking her again, but this time more firmly. Arya's eyes fluttered open, but suddenly she jolted, screamed and punched him in the face. The blow made Dan drop his coffee, sending it crashing onto the floor. He staggered back and held his face. _What the?!_

Arya's eyes widened and her mouth gaped as she realised what she'd just done. She'd just punched Dan Howell square in the face. _Dammit stupid reflexes!_

"Holy crap! I am so sorry! Sit down." Arya jumped off the sofa and steadied Dan and forced him down onto the sofa, completely ignoring the shards of broken ceramic underneath her feet. She leapt over to the end of the sofa and grabbed the first aid kit out of her bag. She expertly whipped out an instant freeze pack and applied it to where she'd punched him. "I am **so** sorry, I didn't mean to, it's just reflexes y'know..." She babbled, still holding the freeze pack to his face, carefully checking the rest of his face for any other damage.

She was completely oblivious to the fact that she was practically sitting on Dan's lap and that their faces were only inches apart, until the front door to the apartment swung open and Phil was just stood in the doorway looking at them.

"Ahh... umm... I can see you two are a bit busy... Should I come back with breakfast a bit later?" He asked awkwardly, shuffling from side to side.

Arya looked at her position with Dan and instinctively jumped back, landing on a piece of the broken mug. She bit back the pain and tried to form a coherent response. "No, we weren't... I wasn't... I..." She was struggling to find the words and her cheeks were growing redder by the second.

Arya looked over to Dan for help. "Arya accidentally punched me and she was just applying a freeze pack to my face." He explained. Dan watched Arya visibly exhale in relief before agreeing with him.

Phil relaxed a little, but he was still confused. "Dan, why did she punch you..." He turned and looked at Arya, thinking that the question was better directed at her. "Arya, why did you punch him? And how can you accidentally punch someone?"

Arya reached her arm up and scratched the back of her head. "He woke me up... it's a reflex. I didn't mean to... it's just what I do."

Phil nodded, not quite understanding but accepting the explanation anyway.

"Well then, remind me never to wake you up." Chris chipped in.

Dan attempted to stand up, but Arya forced him to sit back down, muttering something about a possible concussion. "So, what did you get?" He asked from the sofa.

"Caramel macchiato for you Dan," he replied, handing it over the back of the sofa. "And Ari, I didn't know what you liked so I chanced it and got you a Vanilla Latte. You look like a vanilla latte person, is that okay?"

"Yeah, great! Vanilla Lattes are my favourite!" She said, taking it enthusiastically. She closed her eyes and took a much needed sip, savouring the taste.

Phil looked relieved and handed out the rest of the coffees. "I got everyone bacon sandwiches as well." He said, reaching for the bag that Chris was holding. He started handing them out, but stopped before he gave one to Arya. "You're not a vegetarian or anything like that are you?" He asked dubiously.

"Heck no! I love bacon way too much to ever even consider being a vegetarian." She joked.

Phil approached her to give her the sandwich but paused when he trod on a piece of the broken mug. "What's this?" He asked, crouching down to inspect a random shard.

"Umm... that's the mug that Dan was carrying when I punched him." Arya explained. "Speaking of that, have you got any tweezers? I think I might have a piece wedged in my foot." She spoke the last part quickly, not wanting to overly worry the others. The guys froze, seriously confused. "Or you could pass me my first aid kit." Dan threw her the kit and she limped over to sofa, careful not to step on anything else, and pulled her right foot onto her lap.

After she'd bandaged her foot she looked up at the others. They were still stood there, shocked, except Dan, who was sat next to her, looking quite concerned. She'd been having that effect on them a lot in the past 24 hours that she'd known them. "You know, you lot could be statues the way you manage to hold that shocked expression." Arya joked, trying to diffuse the strange atmosphere. They immediately unfroze and Phil threw her the sandwich.

"If we're going to be hanging out at all, you're really going to have to get used to the whole injury thing. I'm very accident prone. So, you guys got a dustpan and brush?" She asked, when the others had settled into their sandwiches.

"Yeah, they're in the kitchen." Phil said, in between mouthfuls. "Wait, I'll get it!" He tried to add on, but it was too late. Arya was already half way to the kitchen.

After Arya had cleaned up the mess she'd caused (which made Dan and Phil feel very guilty since she was their guest), she settled down next to Dan.

"Oh, Arya, I think you got a message on your phone earlier." Dan said, remembering what had happened before she punched him.

Arya hopped off the couch, which surprised Dan since he thought that her feet must be killing her, and pulled her phone out of her bag. Dan couldn't see her expression since she was facing away from the sofa, but Phil could. Her happy demeanour fell slightly as she looked at her message, but she recovered it quickly before the others noticed, or so she though. Phil had seen her, and he was worried.

Arya checked the time on her phone. 12.10pm. _Damn. _"Hey guys, I really should be going now... I mean, I've gotta check on my baby sis, make sure she hasn't burnt the flat down making cereal." She joked.

"No, problem. Why don't I go with you?" Phil offered. He thought he'd use it as a chance to talk about what was really wrong with her yesterday. He didn't really believe the explanation that she gave in the truth or dare.

Arya shrugged, slightly confused by his offer to walk her to her apartment. "Yeah, whatever. Ima just gonna get changed. Be back in a mo." She said, shouldering her bag and heading upstairs. She automatically headed to Dan's room to change, completely ignoring the fact that Dan could walk in on her at any moment.

When she'd almost finished changing, Arya heard the door handle being turned. She hurriedly pulled on her top and turned around to see Dan, who was talking to someone in the corridor and hadn't noticed she was there. He turned around, and when he noticed Arya standing there, blushed profusely.

"Umm... Sorry... I didn't realise you were in here... I'm just going to-" He started backing out of the room before Arya stopped him.

"No, I'm sorry. I should've asked before using you room. Anyhows, I'm finished now, so I'll just get out of your way." She babbled, shuffling past Dan.

"Hey Ari, why don't you come back later and we can all... edit together." Dan suggested. _Oh, well done Dan. What a stupid suggestion. You might as well have invited her to watch paint dry with you. _

"Really? You want me to come back... after I punched you **in the face**?" She asked, surprised.

Dan was even more surprised that she hand't just laughed and rejected him. "Umm... yeah. I you want to of course. I mean, if you're busy, that's fine, you don't -"

"I'd love to!" Arya cut in, a smile spreading across her lips.

Relief spread throughout Dan. "Great." He said, returning her smile.

"Well, I guess I'll see you later then. You don't mind if I leave my laptop here do you?"

"No, of course not." He responded. Arya nodded her head and started walking down the hallway. "See you later!" He called after her. She turned back at him and smiled once again before going downstairs.

At that moment, Chris emerged from the bathroom and walked up to Dan. "What's your game?" He challenged.

"What are you talking about?" Dan asked, confused.

"You, asking Ari to spend the day with you. I was going to ask her to come hang with me."

Dan stepped back, startled by Chris' menacing tone. "Whoa. Sorry Chris, I didn't know."

Chris drooped his shoulders meekly. "No, I'm sorry Dan. I shouldn't have attacked you like that. I'm really sorry, it's just that she's a really cool girl and... I don't know what got into me."

Chris sounded truly apologetic, so Dan immediately forgave him. "It's alright Chris. You know, you can spend the rest of the day here if you want."

Chris looked up at him, a glint of hope in his eyes. "You sure?"

"Yeah, of course." Dan smiled. "Come here." He pulled Chris into a hug and then left him to do whatever he was doing.

As Dan closed his bedroom door, doubts started to arise. _ Does this mean that Chris really does like Arya? I know they were flirting like crazy yesterday, but I thought that maybe they were just joking around. But I really like her too... Should I keep out of it and let Chris ask her out? But I've never felt this way about a girl before... Oh, I don't know what to do..._

He continued to muse over these thought until he was interrupted when Phil knocked on the door.

"I'm heading out now. I'll see you in a bit. Is there anything you want from the shop?" He asked. Dan shook his head, so Phil just shrugged and left.

**A/N: Hey guys, so just as a forewarning, as soon as this fanfic hits chapter 15, I'm going to put it on hold for a while so I can work on my other 2 fanfics (I have to try and get all three to chapter 15 by september, so im really sorry if you're enjoying it, but I have a lot of other work to do with my other fanfics, not to mention school work as well) I might update a chapter now and then, but until I reach chapter 15 on the other 2 it won't be as regular.**

**Anyhows, let me know what you think and favourite/follow if you like it.**

**Thanks for reading and I love you all mucho! ^_^**


	14. Chapter 14

Arya glanced around the room to try and find Phil. "Phil," she called out. "Phil, where are you?"

"I'm just upstairs, I'll be down in a minute." He called back.

Arya pulled her phone out to pass the time. She decided to text Katie.

_Hey, I'm just about to head back now, should be there in about half an hour-ish. Hope you haven't burnt the apartment building down. Ari x _

Just as she hit the send button, Phil appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"Ready?" She asked.

Phil just nodded and opened the door for her. They walked down the stairs in silence, and when they got onto the street Phil decided it was too loud and busy to talk to Arya. They took the tube to Arya's flat, which was just a busy as the streets.

When they reached the apartment, Arya paused in front of the door. "It's not much, and it's certainly not a nice as your flat, but this is my home." She said, swinging the door open like Dan had for her just under a day ago.

The apartment had a small, open kitchen in the corner with a breakfast bar in the corner and a patterned material sofa with a TV facing it and a wooden coffee table next to it in the the adjacent corner. There were a few doors leading off to different rooms, and in another corner there was a bookshelf overflowing with books, and a desk with workbooks scattered all over it. There were paintings dotted around the room, and there were even some stacked against the wall.

"No, I like it." Phil said, strolling through the door, taking everything in. His gaze rested on a teenage girl, wearing a baggy t-shirt and shorts, sat at the breakfast bar, eating a bowl of cereal. He ducked slightly so that he was Arya's height. "Who's that?" He asked quietly.

"That's Katie, my little sister." Arya walked up to Katie, who seemed completely oblivious that there was anyone else in the room. She was wearing earphones and a faint sound of music could be heard coming from them. When Arya was stood right behind her, she pulled one of the earphones out and shouted "BOO!".

Katie almost fell out of her seat. "Fuck Ari, what did you do that for? You could've made me spill my breakfast!"

Arya tried to conceal her laughter. "Sorry Katie." She grinned. "I just- I couldn't resist it. Anyhows, Katie, this is Phil." She said, grabbing Phil's wrist and dragging him forwards. "Phil, this is my baby sis Katie."

"Oh, hey." She said to Phil, slightly distracted. Katie turned to Arya. "So this is the guy you spent last night with?"

"No!" Arya protested, standing in between Katie and Phil to make the conversation slightly more private. After a pause she continued. "Well, technically yes, but I didn't '_spend the night'_ with him. Anyhows, I'm going out again in a bit, so you have to go get ready."

"Whoa, slow down there sister. You're suddenly getting awful close to having a social life!" Katie mocked.

Arya rolled her eyes. "Shut uuup! I've already texted Steph, you can go over to her place. Will you be okay getting there yourself?"

"Yeah, of course. She only lives like 10 minutes away." Katie scoffed at Arya's motherly attitude and strolled off to the bedroom.

Arya sighed and shook her head as Katie left. "Teenagers." She said to herself. Arya turned her attention to Phil. "So, why did you want to come with me?" She asked directly.

"I wanted to make sure you got back okay. You know, since you got chased and all that yesterday and you seem to be very accident prone..." Phil explained, quite unconvincingly.

Arya smiled slightly. "Aw, that's sweet Phil, if only it were true. Now what's the real reason you came with me? It's obviously not to make sure I got home safe, I don't even think **you** believed that..." She mused over it for a second. "So it must be something sensitive... Is everything okay?" Arya approached him and rested her hand on his arm, concerned.

Phil paused before responding. "Acutally, no it's not. I'm worried about you." He looked her in the eyes.

Arya felt uneasy under Phil's gaze and laughed, breaking the eye contact and brushing the comment aside. "Me? Why would you be worried about me?" She asked, still laughing lightly. _Damn, I thought he'd forgotten about that..._

Phil didn't in join with her. Instead he grabbed her firmly by the shoulders and forced her to look at him. "Look, Arya. I know something's wrong with you, and you're trying to hide it. I don't know why that is, maybe you're to proud to admit it or maybe you're scared. But I want you to talk to me. Something's wrong and I want you to tell me what it is."

Arya was quite unnerved by how much Phil could read into her, but at the same time, she felt relieved that she'd finally found someone who cared, who _wanted_ to know.

_I've never really had anyone to confide in before, I guess I've just never found anyone I could trust... But can I trust Phil? Pff, what am I thinking? Of course I can trust Phil, how could anyone __**not**__ trust Phil? I suppose it would be nice to be able to talk to someone..._

With that realisation, Arya took a dep breath and nodded. "Okay."

A muffled shout calling for Arya echoed through the room.

"... We can talk after Katie's gone." Arya strode off in the direction of the call and disappeared into one of the rooms.

Katie left soon after, but not before Arya gave her a kiss on the forehead and instructed her not to get into any trouble.

Phil chuckled as Arya closed the door. "You might as well be her mother." He joked.

Arya smiled. "Yeah, I might as well be. But I'm not. So, you wanted to talk?"

"Yeah, about what happened yesterday, and that message you got earlier."

"You saw that, huh." Arya muttered. Her voice dropped to barely over a whisper. "Where do you want me to start?"

"How about the waiter?"

"Oh, **_Martin_****.**" Arya almost spat his name out. "Umm... you might want to sit down." Arya guided Phil to one of the bar stools and walked around to the other side of the breakfast bar. She grabbed an empty bowl from the counter and turned around to put it in the sink. "He's my... ex-boyfriend." Arya gritted her teeth as she forced the words out, for he was nothing short of a monster. A solitary tear fell from her left eye as the memories resurfaced. Phil couldn't see it as she was still turned away from him, so she quickly wiped the tear away and turned back to him.

Arya leant on the breakfast bar as she explained everything to him. "From when I lived up north. It started off really good. He' was so kind and thoughtful, and we were in love. Or so I thought. It wasn't long before he turned... nasty. He got angry all the time and started beating me. I changed so much to try and please him. I dyed my hair, changed my clothes, but it wasn't enough. I tried to distance myself from him, but it's not easy in such a small town." She blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall.

Phil took her hands in his. "Didn't you tell your parents?" He asked softly.

"I tried but they wouldn't listen. Nobody would. They preferred to take sides with that smooth talking, manipulative bastard than listen to their own daughter. And I couldn't go to the police because Martin's the son of the Chief Constable. So, when I moved here, I took the colour out of my hair, used most of the money I had to completely change my wardrobe, and changed my name. I thought I was rid of them all, but my family followed me here. I guess I'm glad that my sister's here, and I'll be happy when I gain custody of her, but everything's just so... complicated." Arya wasn't even aware of the tears streaming down her face until she finished.

Phil said nothing, but walked round to her and pulled her into a tight hug, where she stayed, her body shaking gently and tears streaming down her face, soaking into his shirt.

A few minutes passed and Arya eventually pulled herself away from Phil arms. "Thanks. I needed that. And I'm sorry for dumping all this on you."

Phil held her at arms length. "What do you mean?" He asked, puzzled.

"Well you've only known me for a day and I'm burdening you with all my problems." _Well, not all of my problems, but there's only os much drama a guy can handle in one day. Anyway, my father is __**my**__ problem, and I've got to sort it out myself._

Phil shook his head. "Nonsense. There is one more thing that I'd like to know though." Arya looked at him questioningly. "When you got that message earlier, you seemed at bit... distraught. Do you mind me asking what it was?"

"Oh, _that_." Arya fished her phone out of her bag and showed the message to Phil.

'_I didn't know you changed your name, HOPE.'_

"It's from a blocked number, but I'm sure it's from Martin. It couldn't be from anyone else. He must've recognized me." She said as Phil read the text.

Phil placed the phone down. He was unsure of how to respond. "Well, look on the bright side! At least he doesn't know where you live... and you can always change your number if you want to." He said eventually, trying to cheer things up.

Arya gave him a half-smile. "Yeah, you're right. And as Monty Python says, _Always look on the briiight side of life._" She sung the last part and bobbed from side to side. "Anyhows, I've got to get clean. You can watch the TV if you want, there's nibbles in the fridge if you get peckish or whatever. I'll try not to be too long." Arya smiled as she grabbed her bag and walked off to the bedroom.

Phil was amazed by how quickly Arya was able to change emotions. She had gone from emotionally vulnerable to cheerfully humming and bobbing her head to 'Always look on the bright side of life' in less than a minute.

Arya emerged a while later with her damp hair in a braid, draping over her shoulder, and she was wearing ripped skinny jeans, a 'Honey, you should see me in a crown' top and red converse. She had a fresh face of make-up, with some black eyeliner and cherry lip balm. Her freckles were still visible underneath the light coat of foundation she was wearing.

Phil looked up from the TV. "Oh, hey. You ready to go then?"

"Yeah, just give me a second." Arya walked over to the kitchen, opened a cupboard and started shoving a bunch of things in her bag.

"What you doing?" Phil inquired, getting up from the sofa.

"I just thought, since you guys are being real nice to me and letting me hang at your place, and you let me sleep there last night, that I'd bring some snacks and stuff. I don't want to eat all your food and not give you anything in return. And since pretty much all my other food is either frozen or in tins, I've got some malteasers, some crisps... and some other stuff. And don't argue with me, I'm bringing this stuff whether you like it or not." She shouldered her bag and walked over to him.

"Alright, I won't argue. So, shall we go now?"

Arya nodded and they departed back to Dan and Phil's place.

When they arrived, Chris was sat watching the TV, and Dan and PJ were nowhere to be seen.

Phil, as if sensing that Arya was wondering where they were, said "They're probably upstairs editing their videos."

"Oh, okay. Hey Chris. What you watching?" Arya dropped her bag and sat next to Chris on the sofa.

"Doctor Who." He replied absent-mindedly. Arya watched a few seconds of it. It was a repeat of one of Eccleston's episodes, 'The Empty Child'.

Arya noticed her laptop and camera on the table. "Well, I'll be upstairs if you need me. As much as I'd love to watch Doctor Who, I've got a video to edit." She grabbed her laptop and her camera, and headed up the two flights of stairs to the 'nerd room'.

Inside, Dan and PJ were sat next to each other, both with headphones on. They didn't notice her enter, so she sat on the sofa bed and opened her laptop, not wanting to disturb them. Arya plugged in her earphones and started editing.

After a while, Dan got hungry and decided to have a food/internet break. He got up and noticed Arya sitting cross-legged on the sofa bed with her laptop on her knees. _When the hell did she get there? _He stood and watched her for a moment. Her eyes flitted across the screen and her fingers moved deftly over the mouse pad. He tentatively walked over to her and waved his hand in front of her screen.

Arya stopped editing with a start when a hand suddenly appeared in front of her. She looked up and a smile spread across her face when she realized it was Dan.

"Oh, hey." She said as she took out her earphones.

"How long have you been there?"

"Meh.. I don't know. Maybe half an hour? You going downstairs?" Arya shoved her laptop off her knees and Dan helped her up.

Phil's voice echoed through the apartment. "Lunch is ready! I made pasta."

"Ooh, food!" Arya exclaimed as she grabbed Dan's hand and pulled down the stairs, at a much faster speed than he would've liked.

Dan, Phil, PJ, Chris and Arya were all sat around the table, wolfing down pasta and garlic bread.

Dan was the first to strike up conversation. "So, um, Ari.. Theres going to be a New Years Party for Youtubers in a couple of weeks. I was um wondering if you'd like to come with me- **us. ** We'll all be going. You don't have to if you don't want to, it's just that..."

Dan carried on babbling until Arya finished her mouthful. "Sure! I'd love to go! It sounds like fun." She smiled.

**A/N: Hey guys. Sorry it's taken so long to update. I made this chapter extra long to make up for it :)**

**I have a feeling I've been writing a bit too much fluff in this chapter... What do you guys think? Should I tone down the details a bit and focus on getting some more interesting stuff down?**

**Anyhows, thank you so much for reading and I love you all mucho! ^_^**


	15. Chapter 15

Arya and the guys carried on the day editing and uploading their videos and spending copious amounts of time on the internet whilst snacking on malteasers and other junk food. Chris and Arya ended up dancing to a remix of the Pirates of the Caribbean song that she'd found on tumblr. She hated to leave, but she felt like she might be over-staying her welcome.

When Arya got home, she checked out the video she'd uploaded earlier and it already had over 200,000 views! _What the hell? I rarely even get 10,000 views! Where did these people come from? How did this happen?! I didn't even tag it properly!_ She quickly checked some other sites and realised that the guys had shared it on twitter, tumblr and facebook.

She decided to scroll through the comments on the video, replying to them as she read. There were the usuals: The dedicated fans who type like 12 year old fangirls (but she loved them anyway); _"OMG I LOVE YOUR NEW VIDEO! YOU ARE TOTALLY AMAZING!", "YOUR SO FLEXIBLE AND PRETTY! I wish I was more like you!"_ She replied to them kindly, encouraging any who wished to be more like anyone else that they should be comfortable in themselves and that not even their 'idols' are perfect (often divulging them in a short, embarrassing story about herself).

Then there were trolls who seemed to hate all her videos but watched them all anyway; "_seriously, this is like your worst video ever. you suck at vlogging i don't even know why you bother. you're just an attention seeking bitch and you're fucking ugly."_ She usually thanked them for their input and taking their time to watch her video. No need to spur them on.

Of course there were multitudes of new people who had come from the world of the Fantastic Foursome. Some were happy and excited, and some weren't.

**QueenOfNarnia** _I ship you and Chris so much! You two are so cute together! We need a ship name! How about Hopeinthecrabstickz?_

**Cumbercookie1138** _ OMG I think I saw you at the gathering! You're friends with them all now?! Love your vid tho! subscribing right now! :)_

**dangirl5eva**_ omg your just doing this for attention! your such a attention seeking whore! dislike! you're way too ugly to be friends with any of them! why don't you just do everyone a favor and kill yourself!_ _ you low life bitch! and if you don't die then ill make sure you do!_

Arya stopped reading at that point. She read the comment over and over. Sure she was used to getting a bit of hate, but she'd never had anyone tell her to kill herself before. She had no idea what to do or what to feel.

Arya closed the laptop and decided to phone Phil. Since he'd gotten her to open up to him, she felt like she could talk to him about almost anything.

The phone ringed for a little while. _Maybe he's not going to pick up..._

She was about to hang up when the phone was answered. But it wasn't Phil, it was Dan.

"Hey Ari, what's up?" He asked casually.

"Oh, hey Dan." She replied. "Is Phil there?"

"No, he went to the shops and forgot to take his phone. He's most probably stood there trying to figure out what we need. If it's important I can take a message and let him know when he gets home."

Arya hid the small letdown she was feeling. "Nah... I was just hoping to talk really."

"Well you can talk to me if you want."

_Can I talk to Dan? Well I guess he's my friend now, plus he's a Youtuber, so he must've gotten something like this before... Ah what the hell I just need to talk to_ _**someone.**_

"Okay... it's about my new video."

"Oh yeah, I've seen some of the comments. You've been getting quite a bit of hate. How you holding up?" Dan sounded sympathetic.

"Not too well really. I mean, I can take the general hate, I get that all the time. But this one girl... she told me to go kill myself, and if I didn't die then she'd make sure I did. Basically I got my first death threat, and... I dunno... I guess it just scared me that someone wants me dead..."

"Say no more. I'll be over with chocolate and movies in no time... Where do you live?"

Arya laughed. "Dan you don't have to. Really. It's really sweet of you to offer, but I'm alright now. I just needed to talk to we can watch movies and pig out on chocolate some other time. Thanks for listening."

"Oh, okay." Arya thought she heard a note of disappointment in his voice. "Well I guess I'll talk to you soon then. Bye."

Arya spent the next week and a bit texting and chatting avidly with her new friends. She met up with some of them, like Evan and Carrie (and of course the Fantastic Foursome) when she had some time off work. Often when they went out together, whoever she was with got stopped and asked to have a picture with them, taking no notice of Arya whatsoever. Usually she was the one taking the photos.

Arya had gone Christmas shopping with Carrie and had done a liveshow on Younow with Evan. On the liveshow there were multitudes of people speculating wild things about who Arya was to Evan, all of which they laughed and joked about whilst insisting that they were just friends (which only encouraged his fans to insist there was something going on).

A few of days before Christmas, Arya went to all of her new friends' houses/apartments and gave them their Christmas presents. She figured that they'd all be doing something special for Christmas, or going to see their families, so she didn't want to chance missing them.

She'd gotten Dan a set of blow up boobs as a joke gift, and she painted Phil a scene with lions and other things, as well as getting him a pack of kitten stickers. She got the others various novelty items or things that she though they might like (mostly from the ultimate nerd shop Forbidden Planet).

When Arya got to Dan and Phil's apartment, Phil wasn't there, so she left everything with Dan. She was about to go when Dan stopped her.

"Wait!" Arya stopped and looked up at him expectantly. "Do you- umm... Do you want to come in?"

Arya quickly glanced at the time on her phone. "Yeah, sure. I have half an hour to kill." Arya strolled into the apartment and put the presents on the table. "So, you doing anything for Christmas?"

"Yeah, I'm going to stay with my family for a couple of days, and Phil's going to stay with his family. Actually, thinking about it, could you pop in while were gone just to check that everything's okay? Here, I'll give you the spare keys." Dan picked a set of keys out of a glass bowl and gave them to her.

"Okay, cool." She said, jangling the keys in her hand. "Is that all you asked me in for?"

"No. I er- I wanted to ask you if..." Dan rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "If you'd like to be my date for the party."

Arya looked at him slightly confused. _His_ **_date_**_?! _

Dan shovel his hands in his pockets and started babbling. "I mean you be my date as a friend if it's too creepy or whatever. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you. Just forget I ever-"

"No, no." Arya interrupted. "I'd- I'd like that."

Dan looked at her astonished. "You... you what?"

Her lips spread into a soft smile. "I'd like to be your date for the party."

Dan grinned happily. "Really?" Arya nodded. He made a small fist pump and hugged her. Before Arya had a chance to hug him back, he stepped back and became awkward again. "Well, I er- I guess I'll see you New Years Eve."

"Yeah... I'll come round here and we can all go to the party together. I don't want to arrive at the party wondering where my date is." She joked. "See ya."

**A/N: Hey guys! so this is the 15th chapter! something's happening at last! unfortunately you might have to wait a while before i update again because of the 2 other fanfics that i have to work on so this is going on hold for a short while (also I'm going back to school so I have homework and stuff to stress about) :(**

**Please let me know what you think in the comments.**

**Thank you so much for reading and I love you all mucho! ^_^**


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